23/3/98
Funny
farm
If
anything
is
possible
-
as
we
now
know
it
is
-
then
thereג€™s
no
reason
why
Himalayan
herbs
grown
by
Tibetan
monks
cannot
be
cultivated
by
a
Jewish
lady
in
the
netherlands
of
the
arid
Arava.
If
not
for
those
damn
Israeli
weeds.
Elaine
Solowey
doesnג€t
see
the
desert
as
desolate
wasteland.
Sheג€™s
been
coaxing
green
out
of
the
grit
for
a
quarter
century,
bucking
conventional
wisdom
all
the
way.
ג€Onions,ג€
she
was
told.
ג€If
you
want
to
grow
anything
out
here,
grow
onions.ג€
So
of
course,
this
Quixote
of
Kibbutz
Ketura
just
had
to
plant
jojoba
and
lotus
and
aloe
and
even
more
bizarre
things
youג€™ve
never
heard
of,
covering
80
dunams
with
experimental
crops
that
have
to
be
seen
to
be
believed.
Nu?
Put
on
a
hat
and
come
take
a
look!
We
start
the
Ketura
Funny
Farm
tour
with
a
breathtaking
face-to-face
encounter
with
neem.
ג€Really
hot
stuff
now.
The
seeds
are
used
for
Tibetan,
Chinese
and
Indian
medicine.
The
leaves
are
made
into
disinfectant
and
insecticide
that
donג€™t
harm
mammals,
fish
or
birds
-
just
bugs.
The
twigs
are
used
for
cleaning
teeth.
Neem
can
be
put
in
toothpaste,
and
now
some
companies
are
putting
it
in
chewing
gum
because
it
has
good
effects.ג€
(Such
as
keeping
bugs
off
your
teeth.)
Elaine
takes
us
past
a
pomelo
graveyard,
remnant
of
a
small
orchard
that
was
aborted
because
the
kibbutz
commandeered
its
water.
Nothing
there
now
but
dead
fruit
and
thriving
weeds.
Damn
weeds.
We
amble
on.
ג€Over
here,
the
Golden
Cinquefoil,
or
potentila,
very
good
for
the
liver.
Grows
rather
slowly.
Itג€™s
probably
the
most
finicky
plant
here,
and
needs
a
lot
of
weeding.ג€
Truth
is,
I
can
see
weeds,
and
odd
inverted
mushrooms,
and
plenty
of
moss
--
but
nothing
golden,
nothing
resembling
a
cinq
or
foil.
Elaine
beckons
me
to
bend
for
a
closer
look.
ג€You
see
them?
These
are
the
ones
I
want.
Those
tiny
guys
with
little
duckג€™s
feet.ג€
(Thatג€™s
how
she
really
talks.
Sheג€™s
from
California.)
This
potentila
is
one
of
the
Himalayan
herbs
Elaine
is
growing
on
consignment
for
the
Swiss
medicinal
company
Padma.
Hadassah
Hospital
has
been
actively
supportive
in
the
project.
(The
project
also
has
the
blessing
of
no
less
than
the
Dalai
Lama
himself.)
Together,
they
are
trying
to
make
sense
of
a
mysterious,
and
ancient,
medical
tradition.
Itג€™s
a
tough
nut
to
crack
because
these
herbal
compounds
are
very
complicated.
ג€The
thing
about
Tibetan
medicine
is
they
donג€™t
give
you
a
certain
herb
for
a
certain
condition.
There
are
these
recipes
that
according
to
your
physical
type
are
meant
to
strengthen
the
body
enough
that
you
can
overcome
the
illness.
Itג€™s
not
the
magic-bullet
theory.
ג€Iג€™m doing experimental work with a root theyג€™re
missing,
and
a
few
little
odds
and
ends
theyג€™d
like
me
to
try.ג€
We move on to the argania orchard. ג€Itג€s a herb from
Morocco
that
lowers
cholesterol
in
the
blood,
a
delicious
oil,
and
it
has
cosmetic,
anti-aging
properties,
as
a
restorative
for
skin.
Itג€s
great
for
chapped
or
inflamed
skin.ג€
Elaine suggests we see the pitaya (Thatג€™s the real
reason
Iג€™ve
come
here).
We
enter
a
huge
net-covered
area
full
of
gangly,
spiky
cacti.
ג€This
is
the
commercial
section:
62
plants
long,
35
rows
wide.
Probably
the
biggest
pitaya
house
in
the
world.ג€
The thing about Elaine is, she speaks with apparent
sleepy
indifference.
A
shrill
PR
dynamo
she
is
not.
But
itג€™s
a
deception:
this
lady
is
a
doer.
This
sprawling
oasis
is
entirely
her
creation.
ג€We were getting NIS 15 per fruit. Oh yeah, people
were
paying
it.
Pitayaג€™s
very
special.
ג€Thereג€™s a little one, letג€™s eat it now. Itג€™s very
peelable,
you
get
a
totally
solid
lump,
and
the
seeds
are
edible...
Thatג€s
right,
just
crank
off
the
outer
layer...
What
color!
Thatג€™s
really,
really
red.
Like
gleaming
crimson,
speckled
with
black
seeds.ג€
Slurp, slurp, slurp. Oh God, oh wow, this is, ohh,
unbelievable....
Not that it matters, but this ball of joy is healthy
too.
Itג€™s
loaded
with
vitamin
C,
ג€and
you
feel
like
youג€™ve
eaten
a
very,
very
large,
rich
dessert,
but
you
havenג€™t
because
itג€™s
mostly
water.
Pitaya
is
fat
free
and
low
calorie,
yet
sweet.ג€
Itג€s also a great way to stain your face and fingers
crimson.
ג€I think thereג€™s a pitaya for everybodyג€™s taste,
because
they
come
in
so
many
colors
and
flavors:
white
in
the
middle
and
pink
on
the
outside,
which
tends
to
be
sweet-sour;
red-red,
which
are
quite
sweet;
purple-purple,
purple-red,
and
a
yellow
thatג€™s
delicious
but
small.
ג€Oh, thereג€™s a beauty, a nice, big fat one, size
of
a
grapefruit,
Iג€™d
say
about
800
grams.
You
want
to
take
that
home?ג€
Elaine started with a conventional date orchard in
1974
--
3,000
majestic
trees
--
then
began
to
get
weird:
biblical
trees
(pomegranates,
carobs,
barley,
wheat,
etc.);
subtropicals;
the
most
southerly
citrus
orchard
in
Israel;
funny
fruits
like
the
chocolate
apple,
monkey
orange,
black
sapote,
dwarf
lemon
and
orange-colored
lemon;
and
more
recently,
herbs
of
the
Himalayas.
How does one take a plant from the planetג€™s summit
and
cultivate
it
down
here
in
the
bottom
of
a
dusty
pit?
ג€We fool them. We make them feel at home.ג€
Like, what -- she brings in yak drek? Monks with
hoes?
Weeds
from
the
Old
Country?
ג€Yג€™know, people have been doing this for years --
taking
a
plant
to
a
different
environment.
Marco
Polo
brought
oranges
back
from
China.
Think
of
bananas:
they
donג€™t
even
have
viable
seeds,
and
theyג€™ve
spread
all
over
the
southern
hemisphere.ג€
Elaine ruffles the leaves on a flourishing neem.
ג€Iג€™m
starting
to
wonder
whether
the
whole
idea
of
herbal
medicine
doesnג€™t
have
a
lot
more
basic
logic
to
it.
Conventional
medicine
has
nothing
for
chronic
illnesses,
except
stuff
to
alleviate
the
symptoms.
For
auto-immune
diseases,
nothing.
Viruses,
nothing.
ג€Look, so many people have been damaged by conventional
medicine:
taking
anti-inflammatory
for
a
back
problem
and
getting
an
ulcer
from
it;
or
chemotherapy;
allergic
reactions;
you
alleviate
one
set
of
symptoms
and
give
a
whole
new
set
to
worry
about.
Padma
is
looking
for
medicines
without
side
effects,
that
work
gradually.
ג€The idea that we can just take penicillin all our
life
is
primitive.
Yeah,
primitive.
I
hate
to
say
this,
but
sometimes
thereג€™s
nothing
as
primitive
as
a
scientist
set
in
his
ways.
ג€Himalayan herbs have a tradition several thousand
years
long,
and
some
of
these
remedies
have
not
been
matched
by
a
change
in
the
pattern
of
the
disease
in
all
that
time.
We
have
to
look
at
this,
and
say,
OK,
letג€™s
throw
out
our
conventional
wisdom
and
try
it.
ג€Never mind that this stuff is used by a bunch of
monks
in
the
Himalayas.ג€
Having gone to the farthest reaches of our planet
for
something
to
grow,
what
could
Elaine
be
planning
next?
Her answer blew me away.
ג€Heh, heh. Iג€™m starting to work with Israeli weeds.ג€
No!
ג€Some of them are really astounding. There are cures
for
some
viruses
in
Israeli
weeds.
Thereג€™s
lots
of
good
things
in
our
weeds:
tonics
for
digestion,
stabilizers
for
heart
rhythm,
things
with
great
cosmetic
value,
like
for
sunburn.
ג€One of the worst weeds Iג€™ve been trying to eradicate
from
my
fields,
Iג€™ve
only
recently
found
out
is
a
valuable
medicinal
herb.
Itג€™s
a
really
nasty
thing
called
a
withania.
They
grow
into
trees,
theyג€™re
threatening
to
take
over
the
planet.
Now
Iג€™m
thinking
of
cultivating
these
monsters,
and
trying
to
figure
out
how.
Can
you
believe
it?ג€
