BLESSING OF ALMONDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 October 1928, Page 2

BLESSING OF ALMONDS

HOW THEY ARE MARKETED.

Most of the sweet almonds we eat come from the interior of Southern Morocco, where they" grow on small bushy trees. The fruits are picked from the trees by Moors, who after removing the shells send them by camel and mule to the towns on the coast. Here they are sold by the sack-load to the merchants who deal with the big buyers in Europe. Before a load of almonds is bought, they are carefully weighed to see that they .do not contain too much shell or dust. After being -weighed each sack of almonds is “tatsed” by a native, who selects a handful of the fruit and bites off the top of each almond. If he discovers over a certain percentage of bitter or bad “almonds in his handful the sack is rejected or sold for a greatly reduced price, since sweet almonds are more valuable than bitter ones. The almonds are then sifted in order to remove all dust and shell. The almonds are placed in sacks and loaded on to donkeys to the accompaniment of a blessing on the fruit. Each native loader blesses the sack he is handling. When the donkeys reach the quayside, the sacks are unloaded into barges with further prayers and blessings, and are rowed out to the waiting cargo steamers. The blessing of almonds has been performed in Morocco for many centuries, and is believed to bring good fortune and calm weather for the different cargoes.