Morocco Holidays

Watermelons Huge Ripe Moroccan Watermelons

Watermelons Huge Big Red Ripe Watermelons

My wife was given two huge big watermelons, one of her uncles has a farm and grows watermelons near to our villa I love watermelons especially if they have been chilled and are red, ripe and sweet. I have found that if the flesh is a medium red color with no white in it then you can guarantee the fruit will be nice and sweet. I have seen some big watermelons before but these two were huge, my wife could only just carry one, they each weighed about 18 to 20 kilograms and tasted great.

So I got to thinking what was the biggest ever watermelons? So I googled water melon and came up up with some amazing facts about watermelons, here are a couple

My wife says you can tell a ripe watermelon by tapping it, if it sound hollow then it is good. Watermelon Facts

So watermelon helps cure erectile dysfunction apparently the researchers in Texas have proven that this actually works a regular diet of watermelon taken at least twice a day, makes a huge improvement if you have problems with erectile dysfunction. What happens is when citruline in the watermelon is consumed it converts to the amino acid arginine. This in turn increases the body’s levels of nitric oxide which helps dilate and relax the blood vessels, much the same way that Viagra works.

Watermelons can be used to make your own natural mask to cure acne it helps exfoliate heal and rejuvenate your skin. This is a great free external treatment for the skin and the fantastic thing is because it is nearly 90% water-based it’s completely safe to use. rind of watermelon can be mashed and then spread on the face and left 30 min you with you then rinse it off with cool clean water. Another way to use this is Rob the rind of the melon on your face because this is a great way to treat acne apparently the rind of the watermelon contains a lot of vitamin A vitamin A is great for your skin.Watermelon Nutrition.

So it starts off that were given to big watermelons, now I find out of the amazing properties inside watermelon. Anyway for me a heated because I like it and Moroccan watermelon is a great taste and is very sweet. All the added benefits of watermelons are really just an added bonus to the fact that I love it. We collected some of the seeds of the watermelons and we hope to plant the seeds next year, and grow our own huge big red juicy watermelons.

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Wildlife Donkeys And Scorpions In Morocco

Today has been an interesting day we had a lot of people stopping on the road nearby where we are building asking if we wanted to sell our land, I guess we were lucky we bought it nearly 4 years ago and were one of the first people to buy, I think now most of the land near the sea and beach has been sold. Good for  us the prices are shooting up, not that we want to sell. The villa building is coming along great as you can see we are nearly finished the foundations and just about all the steel reinforcement is in place. Tomorrow we start to mix and pour the cement for the foundations. The photo below shows the current state of construction, you are able to see the outline of the villa.

Scorpions

As we were digging around the foundations one of the builders dug up a scorpion, not a big deal for them but for me it was a bit of a fright and I really wanted to get a good look at it, apparently scorpions are common in Morocco and there are quite a few deaths every year through scorpion stings, the black scorpions being the worst and most deadly. My wife is terrified of them, once I got over my initial shock I was just interested, when we got back home I was straight onto Google to look up scorpions in Morocco.

The one we found is the common type not really deadly, I also think it was a female. They generally prefer to hunt at night, feeding on bugs and other insects and even other scorpions.

And finally my donkeys of the day these two kids came trotting by one a big donkey and a small donkey, I see a lot of kids riding donkeys in Morocco especially out in the country side.

Mussels Recipes Moroccan Style

Mussels recipes

Mussels collectors at work

Right outside of our villa we can always find the locals selling fresh fish mussels and oysters, you can guarantee that the fish has just been caught and is really really fresh, the mussels and oysters have just been gathered within the hour. I was originally trained as a chef, so I always take an interest in fresh local produce and do occasionally still love to cook. When I saw the mussels being sold at the side of the road they looked amazing. They were absolutely huge and you could see they were fresh they still had the seaweed in the barnacles on them.

Mussels are normally cheap and plentiful in Morocco and the first photograph you can see the kids collecting them from the beach ready to be sold, mussels prefer cooler coastal waters so the Atlantic coast is ideal for them, there are lots of muscle recipes around but I think the simple ones are the best. Some points to look at when using mussels for muscle recipes

• make sure they are fresh
• if you pick them yourself make sure the water is not polluted
• normally mussels are best in the cooler months when they are not breeding
• check each muscle one by one make sure the shells are closed and not cracked
• always use the mussels on the same day that you get them

Mussels recipes preparation

Mussel Recipes

If you’re going to serve the mussels in their shells which we are in this dish make sure they are cleaned very well, scrape off all the seaweed and barnacles, it’s best to wash them at least three times to remove all the sand, there’s nothing worse than tucking into your mussels and getting a mouthful of gritty sand. Once you have cleaned and scraped all the mussels put them into bowel or a sink full of fresh clean cold water, discard any that stay open when you tap them. The thing with mussels is you don’t need to cook them for a long time the more you cook them the tougher they become if you cook them for long enough it’s going to be like eating elastic.

Muscle recipes

Grab yourself a heavy duty pan and were going to steam them, chop a bit of garlic, a couple of shallots, a bit of salt-and-pepper and whatever fresh herbs that you like, throw in a glass of white wine and a dash of olive oil to give the mussels a lovely shine. Put all your ingredients except the mussels into your pan and bring to the boil, once it’s simmering away put in your mussels and cover the pan with the lid, keep the pan simmering and it will only take a few minutes till the mussels are steamed once they open up they are ready. Make sure you don’t overcook them.

muscles recipes

Now they’re ready to be served, grab yourself some nice crusty bread because the juice from the mussels is ideal for soaking up with a bread. Put your mussels into bowels and decorate with some nice green salad and green fresh herbs. Now it’s ready to eat go and enjoy your mussels recipes.

Villa Plans For Villa Building At Beddouza

Villa Plans

We have had the Villa Plans for quite some time they were professionally drawn up by a Moroccan architect, coming up with the right Villa Plans was not easy we needed to take in all the local building regultions as well as the layout and shape of the land. In the end we opted to go for something simple, which was just as well because a year ago we were told that we could not build on the first 10 meters of our land because the government may need it to extend the road. So thank god we opted for a simple Villa Plans that can be changed easily.

Villa Plans Location

We have a plot of land near a small village called Beddouza or Bedouza or even Meddouza on google maps, anyway the villa is located about 3 kilometres before the village coming from El Jadida. We are between Safi and El Jadida right on the Atlantic coast, the views out over the Atlantic Ocean and the beaches are absolutely stunning, it s one of the main reasons why we commissioned the Villa plans for this spot.

We are more or less situated in the middle of Morocco, we can be in Casablanca in just over 2 hours or Marrakesh in 3. While the beautiful town of Essoura is only just under 2 hours away. So as you can see the Villa is in the right spot, now onto the villa plans.

Villa Plans Land size

Villa Plans Foundations plan and ground floor plan, We also have a another plan for the foundations for all the steel that has to be laid down in the foundations and supporting beams for the villa.

Villa Plans First and second floor, as my wife is Moroccan we will probably stick with a traditional Moroccan building and design, we currently have a bit of a hot discussion about patio doors I want them and she says they will be a security hazard when we are not in the villa, I just thought it would be nice to sit in my office and look out over the pool. I suppose we could compromise and settle for large windows.

Villa Plans first and second floors

Villa Plans Front and side views

Finally what the finished villa is supposed to look like when its finished, lets hope we get somewhere near it.

Villa Plans that’s all for now folks.

Building A Villa In Morocco Foundations

Building A Villa In Morocco

Finally we have all he permissions we need to start building, its taken nearly 4 years of submitting papers, getting stamps, licenses and permits. We have so much paper and permits I have a huge file full of papers, and already the local authorities are asking to see them as we start to lay the foundations for the villa. We have had the plan for nearly three years now, so I know where every brick will go by heart.
So to start we will build a garage, this will be used as a store to keep all the building materials in such as cement, bricks and steel, all the stuff we have to keep on site as its to far away to from the nearest town to buy daily.

So the first photos is of the foundations going down for the garage. Thats my wife giving the builders instructions, in Arabic they have a phrase that is Bash Mohandes it means big engineer. That my wife’s nickname Bash Mohandes because she knows everything about everything, she never built a villa but has been giving out orders like a  seasoned building site foreman.

Building A Villa In Morocco -One of the locals turn up to see what’s going on, so my wife leaves her duties as site foreman to see what’s happening and to say hello, In case you didn’t notice my wife is Moroccan, anyway she has a good chat and gets all the local news and gossip. We must be on the local donkey highway as I normally see about 20 or more donkeys and riders passing daily.

Building A Villa In Morocco – Mixing cement for the foundations, I dont think builders using pink buckets will catch on in Europe.

Building A Villa In Morocco -Pouring the cement into the foundations of the garage

So all in all not a bad first day considering it was also the first day of ramadan as well.

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