In 2008, Guy Ehrlich was driven to recreate the Biblical Balm of Gilead, renowned for its healing properties. Incredibly rare even in Biblical times, growing only in the extreme heat and saline soil of the Dead Sea area, it disappeared from the region in the sixth century. A German scientist smuggled a single shoot out of Saudi Arabia, and some plants were at the Botanical Garden in Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, the climate of Jerusalem was too cold for the desert-loving plants. Fortunately, before they all died, the garden sent some to Dr. Elaine Solowey, director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Kibbutz Ketura. She provided Ehrlich with a beginning for his six-acre Biblical farm. The plants thrived in the Dead Sea climate, and his farm now has about five thousand balsam plants.
His passion for this semi-mythical balm led him to name his farm after it: the Balm of Gilead Farm. Today, his Balm of Gilead Farm has the world's largest private collection of Biblical plants.
Its healing properties were first hinted at by the Prophet Jeremiah: READ MORE