This month, I will graduate with 20 Arkansans from the LeadAR program, a community and economic leadership program offered by The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Extension & Research office. I shared stories about participating in this program with Ozarks Farm & Neighbor readers over the last 18-months.
In September, our group toured the beautiful country of Morocco.
After nearly 24-hours of traveling from different parts of our state, our class arrived in Casablanca. He helped us get checked into our first hotel. We were able to enjoy a dinner at Rick’s Café, made famous by the Humphrey Bogart movie. This was our first introduction to traditional Moroccan food, the tagine.
We traveled the following day to an import & export company and saw sites, including Mosque Hassan II. We even toured a poultry processing facility. We went from there to the capital city of Rabat and were able to take in the Royal Palace, several monuments and the blue village. From there, we traveled to the city of Meknes. This was one of my favorite parts of tour because we met with academic professors at the National School of Agriculture. It was fascinating to see how their progressing country studied the agriculture industry to improve farming and production to support consumer demands.
During our trip to Meknes, we also visited the Qualipole (also known at the Ministry of Agriculture). While Moroccan agriculture may not be as progressive as American agriculture, it was fascinating to learn about how university research was helping improve farming practices. We were able to enjoy lunch with some of the professors and ministers of agriculture. We had lively discussions about education and culture – no lunch in Morocco is complete without a delicious tagine.
From Meknes, we traveled to the city of Fes. Here we were able to tour Zniber Farms and learn about the fruit industry from growing to harvesting and packing to market. It was a great educational tour. From there, we toured Les Cellier, a winery. We were able to tour part of the vineyard and learn more about Moroccan wine making from a French winemaker who ran the facility. We met with professors at Euro Med University and talked about how Arkansans could potentially work with their students.
Later that day we visited a medina in the former imperial city of Fes El Bali. We were introduced to Souk markets and stopped in for a presentation at the Chouara Tannery. This was the most awful smelling part of our tour as they used urine and animal byproducts to tan the leather of cattle, sheep & camels.
Our final city stop was in Marrakech. Here we saw more historic cultural sites including the twin sister Hassan Mosque (twin to the Geralda located in Spain). We toured the Jewish quarter, the medina and stopped to learn more in a fun and educational presentation by a local herbalist. We were able to tour a modern citrus farm and the famous Marjorelle Garden and museum made possible by Yves Saint-Laurent.
There are not enough column inches for me to share all the memories I have from our Moroccan adventure but I’m thankful I can share a few highlights of the beautiful people and culture we were able to experience. I would rate the country of Morocco five stars, would love to visit again, neighbor.
Jody Harris is a freelance communications specialist, gardener, ranch wife and mother of four. She and her family raise Angus beef cattle and other critters on their northwest Arkansas ranch. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Jody, go to ozarksfn.com and click on ‘Contact Us.’
