If you’re a fan of argan oil in your skin-care routine, I have a bit of historical (er, biological?) trivia for you.
It begins with the stout seeds of the shrubby Moroccan Argania spinose tree …
Photo by Songwon Lee via Flickr
Seeds that are gathered by … goats.
Photo by Grand Parc – Bordeaux, France via Wikimedia Commons
That’s right, we’re talking about those wacky tree-climbing goats that scream, “Photoshop!”
But there’s no technological trickery at work here.
These goats do defy gravity, and while they are loping about in the limbs of trees, they eat argan seeds.
Can you see where I’m going with this? (Just be glad you get your argan oil from a bottle.)
Here’s the history of argan oil, in a nutshell, according to Michael Graham Richard of Mother Nature Network:
“Argan oil is quite popular these days in skin- and hair-care products, but this is nothing new. Indigenous Berber tribes in the region actually did something similar, though they didn’t get the argan oil out of a bottle that they bought in a store; goats would climb up argan trees and eat the fruits, swallowing whole the core, which looks a bit like an almond.”
Photo by Fred Dunn via Flickr
Okay, we’re all caught up to that point, so …
“This nut would pass through the goat’s digestive system and end up in goat droppings, where it would be collected. To get at the oil inside, you would then have to crack it open with a stone, and grind the seeds inside. The resulting oil was then used for cooking and as a skin treatment.”
Photo by Chrumps via Wikimedia Commons
Now you know.
As with so many modern manufacturing practices, the middlemen (middlegoats?) have been cut from the process of processing argan oil, but that doesn’t stop them from climbing trees to eat seeds.
Watch and laugh:
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Kristin Sievert!
Kristin Sievert (KESinMN, #6020) has received a certificate of achievement in Outpost for earning a Beginner Level Glamping Merit Badge!
“We’d been camping a couple times with a new tent. But it really wasn’t something I was enjoying, so I decided I might as well trying to “glamp” it up before heading out for a family resort get-together in July.
I started with the bed. I thought maybe something visually appealing might help, so I finished up the quilt speedy quick.
I also dug out a king-sized set of sheets (the sheets had pilled) I kept around for a large supply of fabric the same color—just in case. Since the color matched my quilt, I was in luck. I cut the sheets and modified them to fit my queen air mattress. I sewed the flat sheet directly to the bottom edge of the new fitted sheet.
While I was in the sewing room digging around, I came across some pareos that we had purchased as a possible source of fabric for the kids’ travel quilts. The idea was discarded, but not the pareos. I sewed some long lengths of miscellaneous ribbon from the stash across both ends. I used the ribbon to tie the fabric up using the existing “thingies” at the top of the tent to create a “non-load-bearing wall.” It gave me a way to create a second area in the tent.
My “non-load-bearing wall” was to be my bathroom in the tent. I decorated a “luggable loo” in a complementary contact paper and put that behind the fabric wall.
I felt lighting was always kind of a pain in the wahoo. Digging around in the middle of the night for your headlamp was not fun. So I came across this cheap LED light we got from the bank or something. I tied more ribbon on the light, then again used the “thingies” on the tent ceiling.
The quilt was good, but with a silky sleeping bag, it just didn’t work. Will need to try something else.
The modified sheets worked GREAT! They stayed in place on the mattress and the flat sheet sewn on kept it tucked in all weekend.
I am particularly thrilled with my “non-load-bearing wall.” I was able to play quite a bit with its placement in the tent due to the long lengths of ribbon and where the “thingies” were along the tent ceiling. I left it right in place when we rolled up the tent.
A decorated portable biffy wasn’t going to make or break the experience, but it was a girly thing!
The free LED light was rather funky. If it started spinning, it was like a disco ball effect! I was able to adjust the height with ribbon, so we got it just right. Being able to just sit up in bed and find the light was beyond successful.”
While you may or may not be guilty of this egregious and oh-so-grievous sin, you probably have been in close proximity to one who has.
So close.
So very, very close.
Close enough for them to step on your sore feet, willy-nilly.
BALTER
archaic
Photo by Tomascastelazo via Wikimedia Commons.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
