Kabbage Souss (pronounced kah-baahzh soose, not the way it looks!) is the name of one of the biggest mandarin producers in Taroudannt. I’d seen trucks with the name on it, and thought oh, cabbage! A number of people had mentioned “kah-baahzh” orchards to me, that I must visit them. But…I didn’t put the two together until I went with Dr. El Othmani to visit Kabbage Souss Orchards. It’s another name I really like the sound of…Kabbage sounds so much more sophisticated than plain old cabbage. Of course the names have nothing to do with each other, except for the close spelling.Anyway, Kabbage Souss is right near the city of Taroudannt, in a pretty much uninhabited area that looks like waste ground. The area is very arid, with little vegetation – even few Argan trees, and it is heavily eroded. You drive over dirt roads that seem to lead nowhere, until suddenly you see all this green…the citrus orchards. One of Dr. El Othmani’s former students works there, so he gave us the grand tour.
They have 400 hectares of citrus…about 1000 acres, mostly mandarins, and some oranges. They go through the season with an array of Clémentine varieties…starting with Bruno, Oro grande, Sidi Aïssa, Nules, Larrache, Nour, then a proprietary selection of Nour called KSN – Kabbage Souss Nour, then Afourer, also called Nadorcott.
They had been harvesting for almost two weeks, and had just finished harvest of Bruno, their first variety. They were on the second picking of Oro Grande. They export most of them, so they pick fruits with some yellow coloration, but they mostly look green to me, definitely not tree ripe. Also, they don’t color up as well as ours because it isn’t that cold.We got the grand tour of the different varieties. Then we stopped to see the fully computerized irrigation & fertigation station. Beside it is their water storage basin…enough for 25 days…I can’t remember how many cubic meters, but a lot! It had a sign on it…No swimming! It was bigger than an Olympic pool, and I can see how one would be tempted when it's hot. They even have fish!
On the way to see the mandarin harvest, we stopped at the orange section…they grow Washington Navels, Cara Cara, and Newhall. They have a terrible problem with snails on the oranges; they are really destructive. It seems an oxymoron to have snails in the desert, but apparently the valley where the oranges are planted has harbored them for a very long time. The snails eat the rind and fruit…leaving big holes, and there can be 5 or more snails on the same fruit! Be thankful that we don’t have that issue!
On the way to see the mandarin harvest, we stopped at the orange section…they grow Washington Navels, Cara Cara, and Newhall. They have a terrible problem with snails on the oranges; they are really destructive. It seems an oxymoron to have snails in the desert, but apparently the valley where the oranges are planted has harbored them for a very long time. The snails eat the rind and fruit…leaving big holes, and there can be 5 or more snails on the same fruit! Be thankful that we don’t have that issue!
Then we went to see the harvest. Many Moroccans do not like to have their picture taken, as I have mentioned before, but we found a picker who would let us take his picture, so I took a lot of pictures. It was pretty interesting. They are paid by how much they pick, so he was fast. They are using shears very similar to the little lemon clippers most of our growers use. At another farm, I saw shears that looked more like small wire cutters.
They pick into water…directly into what looks like a plastic wastebasket with holes in it, which in turn, is nested in a bigger bucket of water, with a very weak solution of 2,4 D in it. Apparently the 2,4 D holds the calyx on the fruit…if there is no calyx, it will not be acceptable at the packing house. Then the wastebaskets are dumped into a plastic bin that holds about 38-40 pounds – about the size of some of ours. They stack the bins beside the row as they fill them…very carefully leaving an empty one on the bottom so the fruit does not touch the ground.
There are two pickers per row…one on each side of the row so they don’t have to go back and forth between the trees. The intrarow spacing is very close…about 9 feet between trees in the row, then about 15-18 feet between rows, depending on variety. They are keeping the trees low as well…no ladders to be seen in the mandarins. I saw some in the navels, though.
It is quite an operation. Trucks take huge piles of the bins to the packing shed. I see trucks on the road from Taroudannt all the time, with different colored bins for the different companies. The big companies have their own packing sheds, but some pack other fruit on contract. I have not yet seen a citrus “Station de conditionnement” (lit. conditioning station) as they call packing houses. I visited a vegetable packing house this past Saturday with the group of Saudi lab technicians who are here for training. It was beautiful…immaculate, really nice equipment, and very efficient. At least as nice as and maybe better than some California packing sheds! I’m going to see the citrus packing shed tomorrow. More on that later.
I’ve been buying Clémentines in the various markets/supermarkets to see how they are. They are green, with some yellow orange color, attractive looking, but…so far, I am not that impressed. They are clearly being picked for shipping, and the sugars are no up yet and the flavor is not that great. What ends up in local markets are the rejects from the packing houses…smaller fruit, ones without their calyces, and ones with cosmetic flaws. I did buy some fully orange ones yesterday...figuring they had been treated with ethylene. They are a better tasting, but still not up to our standards.
Yesterday I went to the huge “First day (Sunday) market” which actually is open every day. It is an enormous market enclosed with big walls – like the old city walls in Taroudannt or Meknes. It has 21 doors, so you have to remember which door you came in to find your way back to the same spot. It was actually pretty easy to navigate because there is a huge open central area where you can identify which way you came. I didn’t go back out the same door, but it was in the general area, so I easily found a taxi. Taxis are pretty inexpensive as well…I paid about $1.25 each way.
They sell pretty much everything you could possibly want: clothes, furniture (ready made & made to order), cookware & dishes, hardware, TVs and appliances, carpets, toys, spices, fish, fruits, vegetables, etc. As well as the Moroccan crafts…leather goods, lamps and metalwork, shoes, jewelry, clothing, rugs, etc. You just have to know where to find what you want, I guess.
Yesterday I went to the huge “First day (Sunday) market” which actually is open every day. It is an enormous market enclosed with big walls – like the old city walls in Taroudannt or Meknes. It has 21 doors, so you have to remember which door you came in to find your way back to the same spot. It was actually pretty easy to navigate because there is a huge open central area where you can identify which way you came. I didn’t go back out the same door, but it was in the general area, so I easily found a taxi. Taxis are pretty inexpensive as well…I paid about $1.25 each way.
They sell pretty much everything you could possibly want: clothes, furniture (ready made & made to order), cookware & dishes, hardware, TVs and appliances, carpets, toys, spices, fish, fruits, vegetables, etc. As well as the Moroccan crafts…leather goods, lamps and metalwork, shoes, jewelry, clothing, rugs, etc. You just have to know where to find what you want, I guess.
It was pretty wild, but really not a lot different than big city markets in West Africa or elsewhere I have been. I checked out the spice and craft sections for a while…the only thing I bought was a basket/purse to carry things in. I probably paid too much for it, but it’s not going to break the bank.
Then I went to the vegetable and fruit section. That’s where it is wild. There is one huge hall and it is jammed with people and vendors. There are two rows of cement tables down the middle, and the vendors are set up on them. So the crowd funnels through the middle to buy. After I had fought my way through the crowds and managed to buy some vegetables and fruit, I found another side section…without the cement tables and floor, but much quieter, with few people…so it was easy to buy. I spent a grand total of $5.25 for all my veggies & fruit -½ a kilogram (1.1 pound) of very fine green beans, another of sweet red peppers (about 1 pound for 35¢!!), a kilo of onions and a kilo of potatoes, half a kilo of lovely little butter pears and a kilo of Clémentines.
If you just eat fruit, vegetables, bread (about 12¢ for a small flattish loaf about 5” across), yoghurt (they make individual cups like we have and each one costs about 25¢) and eggs (about 12¢ each) - you can eat for next to nothing. Almost all the fruit is grown here…even the bananas, so it’s pretty cheap. The pears were the most expensive at $3 a kilo ($1.50 a pound) as they come from Meknes, which is quite a ways away. Even adding taxi fare into the cost of my fruits and veggies, it was still cheap!
It’s the imported stuff that costs a fortune…I bought a chocolate bar in a grocery store last week. It wasn’t priced (most supermarkets either label the items with the price or it’s on the shelves like ours.) It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the sales slip that I realized I had paid $4 for it! Expensive treat…but probably worth it occasionally! :)
Then I went to the vegetable and fruit section. That’s where it is wild. There is one huge hall and it is jammed with people and vendors. There are two rows of cement tables down the middle, and the vendors are set up on them. So the crowd funnels through the middle to buy. After I had fought my way through the crowds and managed to buy some vegetables and fruit, I found another side section…without the cement tables and floor, but much quieter, with few people…so it was easy to buy. I spent a grand total of $5.25 for all my veggies & fruit -½ a kilogram (1.1 pound) of very fine green beans, another of sweet red peppers (about 1 pound for 35¢!!), a kilo of onions and a kilo of potatoes, half a kilo of lovely little butter pears and a kilo of Clémentines.
If you just eat fruit, vegetables, bread (about 12¢ for a small flattish loaf about 5” across), yoghurt (they make individual cups like we have and each one costs about 25¢) and eggs (about 12¢ each) - you can eat for next to nothing. Almost all the fruit is grown here…even the bananas, so it’s pretty cheap. The pears were the most expensive at $3 a kilo ($1.50 a pound) as they come from Meknes, which is quite a ways away. Even adding taxi fare into the cost of my fruits and veggies, it was still cheap!
It’s the imported stuff that costs a fortune…I bought a chocolate bar in a grocery store last week. It wasn’t priced (most supermarkets either label the items with the price or it’s on the shelves like ours.) It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the sales slip that I realized I had paid $4 for it! Expensive treat…but probably worth it occasionally! :)
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