balm of gilead
farm

1,500 years ago, a wondrous plant that grew along the shores of the Dead Sea, disappeared.

 

The Prophet Jeremiah speaks of the plant’s healing power. The Prophet Ezekiel admires its  economic value. The Book of Exodus cites this plant as an incense for worship – to be burned in the Holy Temple.

 

The plant was a gift from The Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. Its orchards were owned by King Herod, looted by Marcus Antonius, and gifted to Cleopatra. Its branches carried by Titus along with the Golden Menorah in the Roman Empire’s triumphant march to Rome after the conquest of Jerusalem.  

 

Today, this plant – The Balm Of Gilead (Balsamon) -  that had not been seen for 1,500 years – has been reborn – at the Balm Of Gilead Farm in Almog, Israel, on the northern coast of the Dead Sea.

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In addition to the Balm of Gilead (Balsamon, Commiphora Gileadensis), the Balm Of Gilead Farm cultivates other biblical plants such as dozens of different species of frankincense and myrrh. One of them is the true frankincense of the Temple (Boswellia sacra), a tree in danger of extinction which has no agricultural cultivation anywhere else in the world except in our farm.
 

“The Balsamon Tree has not been cultivated commercially in this region for almost 1000 years,” says Guy Erlich, Owner and Expert Cultivator of the Balm Of Gilead Farm. “The ancient plants I am reviving here were once the main economic staple of the Ancient Hebrews of the Jericho Valley - our ancestors.

 

I have taken it upon myself to make it happen.”