23 September 2009
Yesterday, I finally met my colleague from the Hassan II Institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Dr. Mohamed El Othmani. I had talked with him on the phone numerous times, but given the four day End of Ramadan holiday and the uncertainty of when it would be, we were unable to make plans until yesterday. Dr. Mohammad came out here from Agadir, about an hour away, to take me on a visit to one of the most progressive, and the largest citrus farm in the area. His specialty is citrus, but he teaches an array of different classes.
In Arabic, a large commercial citrus operation is not called an orchard or grove, but a farm (ferme, as in French). Small orchards or farms, about 5 acres or less, from what I understand, are called gardens – jnena in Arabic. They are jnena whether they produce fruits or vegetables and even a few animals! Interestingly, the public garden where I walk Saïda every morning is called a jirda, from jardin, the French word for garden.
We visited Domaine El Boura yesterday. In French, a large farm is a domaine (the farmer is king of his domain!) and it is big! 1500 hectares, 1200 of them planted. For those of us still wandering in the non-metric system, that is just over 3,800 acres total, and over 3,000 planted acres. From the guesthouse staff, I understand that I would not have had a chance of getting in to visit without the introduction. El Boura is pretty self-contained, with its own nurseries, tissue culture lab, insectary for Aphytis, and processing facilities. From seed to packed export carton, they do it all, as Monsieur Hassani, the manager said.
El Boura was impressive…acres and acres of citrus, with beautifully pruned navel trees dating to the early days of the farm…1942. After doing a rejuvenation pruning a few years back, they are again very productive, and produce good quality fruit. Chalk up another point in favor of old trees and good fruit! They certainly look healthy and beautiful.
El Boura produces navels, Valencias, a few lemons, but primarily mandarins. Not Satsumas, but Clementines, and lots of them! They grow primarily for export, and their three largest customers are Russia, the US, and Britain. They have 3 farms, of which, this was the largest. Their production is 3% of Morocco’s citrus exports, and 25% of Moroccan exports going to the US. So they are important here, and on the East Coast of the US. And very much on Morocco’s cutting edge.
The common Clementine varieties that we have are Clemenules and what they call Biladi, which is what our guys call Algerian, the original Clementine. The rest: Nour, Sidi Aïssa, and a number of others are not common in the US, although they are in the Lindcove collection.
They also grow Oroval, Marisol, and something called Carte Noir. The Carte Noir harvest starts next week, so we tried some of them, the first mandarins of the season! Eat your hearts out!
Yesterday, I finally met my colleague from the Hassan II Institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Dr. Mohamed El Othmani. I had talked with him on the phone numerous times, but given the four day End of Ramadan holiday and the uncertainty of when it would be, we were unable to make plans until yesterday. Dr. Mohammad came out here from Agadir, about an hour away, to take me on a visit to one of the most progressive, and the largest citrus farm in the area. His specialty is citrus, but he teaches an array of different classes.
In Arabic, a large commercial citrus operation is not called an orchard or grove, but a farm (ferme, as in French). Small orchards or farms, about 5 acres or less, from what I understand, are called gardens – jnena in Arabic. They are jnena whether they produce fruits or vegetables and even a few animals! Interestingly, the public garden where I walk Saïda every morning is called a jirda, from jardin, the French word for garden.
We visited Domaine El Boura yesterday. In French, a large farm is a domaine (the farmer is king of his domain!) and it is big! 1500 hectares, 1200 of them planted. For those of us still wandering in the non-metric system, that is just over 3,800 acres total, and over 3,000 planted acres. From the guesthouse staff, I understand that I would not have had a chance of getting in to visit without the introduction. El Boura is pretty self-contained, with its own nurseries, tissue culture lab, insectary for Aphytis, and processing facilities. From seed to packed export carton, they do it all, as Monsieur Hassani, the manager said.
El Boura was impressive…acres and acres of citrus, with beautifully pruned navel trees dating to the early days of the farm…1942. After doing a rejuvenation pruning a few years back, they are again very productive, and produce good quality fruit. Chalk up another point in favor of old trees and good fruit! They certainly look healthy and beautiful.El Boura produces navels, Valencias, a few lemons, but primarily mandarins. Not Satsumas, but Clementines, and lots of them! They grow primarily for export, and their three largest customers are Russia, the US, and Britain. They have 3 farms, of which, this was the largest. Their production is 3% of Morocco’s citrus exports, and 25% of Moroccan exports going to the US. So they are important here, and on the East Coast of the US. And very much on Morocco’s cutting edge.
The common Clementine varieties that we have are Clemenules and what they call Biladi, which is what our guys call Algerian, the original Clementine. The rest: Nour, Sidi Aïssa, and a number of others are not common in the US, although they are in the Lindcove collection.
They also grow Oroval, Marisol, and something called Carte Noir. The Carte Noir harvest starts next week, so we tried some of them, the first mandarins of the season! Eat your hearts out! While they are mostly green, with a tinge of orange, they are very good and quite sweet. It is still pretty hot in the Souss in September/October, so they have a problem with color. (n.b. I saw a cart full of Carte Noir for sale in the Taroudant market on Saturday, Sept. 26th.)
One of the startling things in the El Boura orchards was the sight of herds (10-15 at a time) of wild pigs, called sangliers in French. They are native to Morocco, and have been in the orchard for years. According to Monsieur Hassani, they are not aggressive, although Dr. Mohamed and I were a little leery. They were not really afraid of us…and let M. Hassani get within about 20 feet, then they would turn and run off.
Anyway, the pigs eat the fruit from the skirts of the trees, carefully peeling it and leaving the peel on the ground! M. Hassani said they were the best judges of ripeness, and workers use them to guide harvest. They don’t dig up the ground much, the way our wild pigs do, and don’t seem to do much damage to the trees. As they are a protected species here, they could not do a lot about it if the pigs were destructive. They seem to live in good harmony with the orchards. I’m not sure what the Food Safety crazies would say about pigs in an orchard, but El Boura, like most Moroccan export orchards, follows a strict program (EuroGAP and others) to be certified to sell fruit through a variety of export channels.
More on their production practices later. Tomorrow I am going to Ait Milloul, where the Ag Institute is, to meet other professors and listen to Dr. El Othmani’s Masters students give presentations on their theses.
One of the startling things in the El Boura orchards was the sight of herds (10-15 at a time) of wild pigs, called sangliers in French. They are native to Morocco, and have been in the orchard for years. According to Monsieur Hassani, they are not aggressive, although Dr. Mohamed and I were a little leery. They were not really afraid of us…and let M. Hassani get within about 20 feet, then they would turn and run off.Anyway, the pigs eat the fruit from the skirts of the trees, carefully peeling it and leaving the peel on the ground! M. Hassani said they were the best judges of ripeness, and workers use them to guide harvest. They don’t dig up the ground much, the way our wild pigs do, and don’t seem to do much damage to the trees. As they are a protected species here, they could not do a lot about it if the pigs were destructive. They seem to live in good harmony with the orchards. I’m not sure what the Food Safety crazies would say about pigs in an orchard, but El Boura, like most Moroccan export orchards, follows a strict program (EuroGAP and others) to be certified to sell fruit through a variety of export channels.
More on their production practices later. Tomorrow I am going to Ait Milloul, where the Ag Institute is, to meet other professors and listen to Dr. El Othmani’s Masters students give presentations on their theses. 
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