A couple of months ago a friend of ours in Ounagha (a village about 25km inland from Essaouira) bought 30 beehives, and we bought one too!!! As you can see, beehives in Morocco are not the same as back home – the bees build their nests in long cylinders made of reeds – these are then packed in clay or whatever else you can lay your hands on, and the ends blocked (then carefully removed for harvesting).
We’ve just collected our first batch (or rather, our friend did…see above!) and it’s the most delicious, heavy honey we’ve ever tasted…with a dark colour and a bitter ‘finish’ arising from the bees’ proximity to an olive grove.
Check out these honeycombs (and by the way, lying in a hot field sucking honey straight from the comb is the definition of luxury)…