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Spicy story
Little water, lots of heat and love
by Carl Alpert
HAIFA—The spice merchants
of ancient times were on to a good
thing. Their caravans from the
mystic East were the sole source of
the herbs and spices and scented
plants which Europe craved.
Marco Polo followed their trail to
the Orient. Columbus and other
explorers sought new roads to the
lands of the spices, and their
opening up of a new world was
only a chance by-product of that
search.
Spices are still big business, and
in the modern idiom they account
for an annual turnover of well over
a billion dollars. And it now turns
out that the wily caravan
merchants had sources for their
merchandise much closer to
Europe than they were willing to
admit. Many of the highly
desirable herbs grow wild in parts
of the Middle East and even in
sections of Europe. But distance
lent enchantment, and boosted the
price as well. To this very day the
great majority of spices marketed
are harvested from wild plants.
Israel is a natural home for
many of these plants, and with the
financing of the Jewish Agency
lyj^jhe Ministry of Agriculture a
A young American horticull\in$?,
Jim Simon, is in charge.
His mission is a dual one. He is
in the process of demonstrating
that the precious herbs and spices
which grow wild all over Israel can
be “domesticated" and improved,
and successfully marketed for a
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Hie
Sampler
325-4147
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AT CLAIRMONT
good share of that billion dollar
business. And in the second place,
he is using for his farm only hilly,
rocky Galilee land which cannot be
exploited for any other
agricultural purpose.
We walked about the Tefen
Spice Research Farm where close
to 20,000 plants are flourishing.
Jim pointed out the bay leaves,
sage, sweet majoram, thyme,
oregano, capers and wild savory—
the lavender and lemon balm,
rosemary and many other plants
which feel quite at home in the
stony hills of Galilee. This farming
is done without irrigation; the
hardy plants go through the long
dry summer without water. In
some countries these spices are
grown with ample water, and the
result is big leafy plants, but there
is a parallel reduction in quality.
Israel seeks to produce the highly
concentrated herbs and essential
oils which command the highest
prices Little or no research is
being done anywhere else on this
kind of dry farming.
There are sections of the Tefen
Spice Farm where every individual
plant is mapped, charted, watched,
and studied under various
conditions of control experiments.
The purpose is to produce the best
stock in terms of quality and
plants^ ‘ ' trcds and
As indicated, this is all done on
marginal land, so rocky that it can
not be plowed. In some places the
plants grow in ground that is 70
percent stone, with only a thin
sliver of earth. There are plants
that like it that way, and thrive.
Furthermore, the stones help to
prevent the evaporation of what
little moisture there is, even
preserving the dampness of the
heavy dews prevalent here in the
summer.
Jim Simon seems to have a
personal relationship with each of
his 20,000 plants. It is a
relationship almost akin to a love
affair, as he tenderly and
affectionately tends his wards with
help from settlers of a nearby
kibbutz, occasional volunteers,
and the scientific supervision of
Prof. Yoram Avnimelech of
Technion’s Department of
Agricultural Engineering.
Jim is not rushing matters. He
has given himself three years in
which to come up with the
answers; Which spices and herbs will
grow best? Which will command
the best markets? Which can be
developed into such superior types
that they will be the very best in the
world? Jim is an authority on
spices. He is being thorough and
scientific; he will compromise on
nothing. And when the three years
are up, and he has his answers, he
w^|l be 27 years old.
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A catering executive will help you plan your meeting from start to
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P»|* 13 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE July 27, 1979