2007 Saffron harvest

The week was beautiful in Taliwine. Bilal was working with a 2M team shooting a reportage for Toubkal, and ourselves, after heavy and delicious beginnings in Marrakech (tanjia, pastilla, figues tajine...) were pursuing our tour focused on "learning Moroccan cooking", with the objective of taking part in the harvest.

In the saffron fields at dawn

Agriculture and weather don't care of tourism constraints, and the fields were we intended to work displayed only a few flowers. The first day was spent into visiting the area and looking for blooming fields. There were some in Tinfert and in the direction to Askaoun, it was finally on one of these haut-plateaux that we came back on the morrow, kindly welcomed by a family of three producers, whose kindness warmed more than our fingers that were suffering from the cold before sun rise.

Saffron flowers at dawn

The end of our three days was marked by an exceptionnal mechwui (roasted mutton) prepared with saffron, in the kitchen of l'auberge du Safran, and savoured in the evening with the nce Mahfoud, who made our stay wonderful !

The oldest man in the World is Moroccan !

He is 123 years old, at least from his memories (at that point of time, birth registration did not exist), and still fit. He is a Kwassem, a member of a Chorfa tribe living in the area of El Jadida and Azemmour.

Chorfa are descendant of the Prophet, and they are particularly respected in Morocco. They are supposed to have special powers, "baraka" as they are called.

This tribe has also the specificity of being hereditary falconners, and the only ones still authorized in Morocco. They hunt with a small falcon that they call "the noble bird". They often caputre them very young in their nest hanged to high cliffs (there are a lot of gorges in Morocco), and then they hunt in the desert.

We met them sometime ago...