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magidOne of the places the ride raises money for is the Arava Institute, located at Kibbutz Ketura, about 40 km north of Eilat and not far from the border with Jordan. The Arava Institute is for students (college and grad) of environmental science and peaceful coexistence; students come from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan, also the US. They're affiliated with Ben Gurion University (we'd ridden not far from one of their campuses in Sdeh Boker earlier that day (Sunday, our fourth day of riding)), though my impression is that the program is wholly separate from the courses offered at other locations.
One of the unexpectedly excellent parts of the ride was the chance to talk with the crew, most of whom were Arava alumni. I've never had anything more than superficial interactions with Palestinians or Jordanians before, and while they were obviously not a typical sampling (people willing to live in Israel, for starters), it was great to learn that there are moderates on all sides, that there are possibilities for making peace between people that can grow into greater peace. Not that this is easy; everyone has their own narrative, as Mutassim pointed out, and for there to be true peace, everyone's truth has to be heard. And, of course, I'm always happy to hear about ecological projects that consider the environment, whether it's sustainable agriculture, increased composting, increasing solar power, decreasing air pollution, or keeping local species protected in the face of invasive intruders.
Because I'd had the chance to talk with so many of the alums during the ride (and over Shabbat, which was not only a lovely break from riding, but gave people the chance to hang out; days of riding tended to be overfull as it was), I decided not to take an official tour of the Arava Institute at the kibbutz, and I skipped a tour of the kibbutz as a whole, too. Instead, I chose to see the experimental orchards near the date palms (date palms require a lot of water, but it doesn't have to be particularly good water, which makes it feasible for the kibbutz).
Dr. Elaine Soloway started and runs the orchard, which is now affiliated with the Arava Institute, but was started far earlier. They have 3000 date palms (two kinds), with the first being planted in 1976. In 1985, they started the experimental orchards, first with biblical trees, then expanding to tropicals, subtropicals, and medicinals, including antivirals.
When they started the experimental orchard, they carefully chose the location so they'd keep the one tree that had been there already, a 300-year-old acacia. Some of the trees planted nearby include artemisia judaica, which can grow in saline water and has many medicinal possibilities, and an abraham tree, which can help menopausal women and teens who are failing to grow. Nearby there's sage, which apparently kills strep.
The way they find out about possible medicinal uses is from a 'folkloric trail,' then planting the mentioned species, and having labs test the plants for the proposed uses. There are three labs that do the preliminary testing, followed by others (at hospitals and other labs?). The folkloric trail is from a British soldier named Zaichik, who was invalided out of the army in the early 1900s and came to Palestine. He walked all over the region (Jordan, Lebanon, etc.) learning languages and asking people how they used their plants. He kept extensive notes, which form the basis of what things are tested for today. If a number of disparate villages used a particular plant as an antiseptic, for instance, it's worth checking out those properties, and so on. Some of the other plants they're testing include anti-virals and possibly anti-cancer plants as well.
We saw young samples of some of the Biblical perfumes, frankincense and myrrh. I was distracted by a tree that looked to have mangoes hanging from it, as well as many flowers, but the mangoes were not solid. Instead, they squished rather like sponges. I asked about it, and was told that they're Dead Sea apples, an extremely poisonous tree: getting the sap in an eye can cause blindness. She keeps one in the orchard, however, because every so often she gets a call from Hadassah Hospital, when they have a case of elephantaisis: there are compounds that can be extracted from the sap to cure the disease. She puts on goggles and rubber gloves before going near it, though.
We walked to another part of the orchard, with trees from other places (Kibbutz Ketura is often a testing ground for importing new species: if it's invasive, there's enough desert around that it can't get very far). One of the trees here, brought from Africa, is the marula tree, which produces up to half a ton of fruit per tree. They look like tiny mangoes, which they are related to. In Africa, the fruit falls off the tree, and ferments on the ground. Animals eat them, and get drunk. Animals like elephants and rhinos; she didn't stay long when checking out the trees in Africa, unsure of what a drunken elephant might choose to do. Here in Israel, they turn some of the fruit into a liqueur, and some into marmalade (I got a bottle of the booze :-).
Another tree they have many of are neem trees, which have medicinal properties, especially for anti-insect sprays (and have been known to stop locust plagues as well). Next to the neems were organia, shrubs from Morocco, which is not only liked by goats (what isn't, after all?), but grows a nut from which an oil is pressed. Argan oil is used for salad (but not cooking), and the French-Moroccan hairdresser (a rider who owns an incredibly upscale salon in NYC) said it's also excellent for hair.
Dr. Soloway complained a bit about the government pressing them to grow species unsuited for the desert because they were cash crops, saying it didn't make sense to impose crops that wouldn't work there. My impression is that she has gotten far enough along with the different crops she thinks are more suited that the government has stopped this kind of pressure.
There are about 500 species in the orchard, not all of which will be usable in the long run. She continues to replace those that are failures with others that might work. Even so, she has to consider the water: they get only 50 mm of rain each year (Be'er Sheva, not so much farther north, gets three times as much). It's not easy, but it's obvious she loves what she does. I could have listened to her for days, not just an hour or so.
I found myself talking about the orchards a lot in the week I was still in Israel after the ride; they're managing to do so many impressive things! That, and the Arava Institute in general. Every student, every alumnus/a is another person from whom the ideas of environmental awareness and peaceful coexistence ripple out. I'm extremely glad to support them with my riding; the ride provides some ridiculously large percentage of their budget, which has allowed them to expand the program much faster than would otherwise have been feasible.
One of the unexpectedly excellent parts of the ride was the chance to talk with the crew, most of whom were Arava alumni. I've never had anything more than superficial interactions with Palestinians or Jordanians before, and while they were obviously not a typical sampling (people willing to live in Israel, for starters), it was great to learn that there are moderates on all sides, that there are possibilities for making peace between people that can grow into greater peace. Not that this is easy; everyone has their own narrative, as Mutassim pointed out, and for there to be true peace, everyone's truth has to be heard. And, of course, I'm always happy to hear about ecological projects that consider the environment, whether it's sustainable agriculture, increased composting, increasing solar power, decreasing air pollution, or keeping local species protected in the face of invasive intruders.
Because I'd had the chance to talk with so many of the alums during the ride (and over Shabbat, which was not only a lovely break from riding, but gave people the chance to hang out; days of riding tended to be overfull as it was), I decided not to take an official tour of the Arava Institute at the kibbutz, and I skipped a tour of the kibbutz as a whole, too. Instead, I chose to see the experimental orchards near the date palms (date palms require a lot of water, but it doesn't have to be particularly good water, which makes it feasible for the kibbutz).
Dr. Elaine Soloway started and runs the orchard, which is now affiliated with the Arava Institute, but was started far earlier. They have 3000 date palms (two kinds), with the first being planted in 1976. In 1985, they started the experimental orchards, first with biblical trees, then expanding to tropicals, subtropicals, and medicinals, including antivirals.
When they started the experimental orchard, they carefully chose the location so they'd keep the one tree that had been there already, a 300-year-old acacia. Some of the trees planted nearby include artemisia judaica, which can grow in saline water and has many medicinal possibilities, and an abraham tree, which can help menopausal women and teens who are failing to grow. Nearby there's sage, which apparently kills strep.
The way they find out about possible medicinal uses is from a 'folkloric trail,' then planting the mentioned species, and having labs test the plants for the proposed uses. There are three labs that do the preliminary testing, followed by others (at hospitals and other labs?). The folkloric trail is from a British soldier named Zaichik, who was invalided out of the army in the early 1900s and came to Palestine. He walked all over the region (Jordan, Lebanon, etc.) learning languages and asking people how they used their plants. He kept extensive notes, which form the basis of what things are tested for today. If a number of disparate villages used a particular plant as an antiseptic, for instance, it's worth checking out those properties, and so on. Some of the other plants they're testing include anti-virals and possibly anti-cancer plants as well.
We saw young samples of some of the Biblical perfumes, frankincense and myrrh. I was distracted by a tree that looked to have mangoes hanging from it, as well as many flowers, but the mangoes were not solid. Instead, they squished rather like sponges. I asked about it, and was told that they're Dead Sea apples, an extremely poisonous tree: getting the sap in an eye can cause blindness. She keeps one in the orchard, however, because every so often she gets a call from Hadassah Hospital, when they have a case of elephantaisis: there are compounds that can be extracted from the sap to cure the disease. She puts on goggles and rubber gloves before going near it, though.
We walked to another part of the orchard, with trees from other places (Kibbutz Ketura is often a testing ground for importing new species: if it's invasive, there's enough desert around that it can't get very far). One of the trees here, brought from Africa, is the marula tree, which produces up to half a ton of fruit per tree. They look like tiny mangoes, which they are related to. In Africa, the fruit falls off the tree, and ferments on the ground. Animals eat them, and get drunk. Animals like elephants and rhinos; she didn't stay long when checking out the trees in Africa, unsure of what a drunken elephant might choose to do. Here in Israel, they turn some of the fruit into a liqueur, and some into marmalade (I got a bottle of the booze :-).
Another tree they have many of are neem trees, which have medicinal properties, especially for anti-insect sprays (and have been known to stop locust plagues as well). Next to the neems were organia, shrubs from Morocco, which is not only liked by goats (what isn't, after all?), but grows a nut from which an oil is pressed. Argan oil is used for salad (but not cooking), and the French-Moroccan hairdresser (a rider who owns an incredibly upscale salon in NYC) said it's also excellent for hair.
Dr. Soloway complained a bit about the government pressing them to grow species unsuited for the desert because they were cash crops, saying it didn't make sense to impose crops that wouldn't work there. My impression is that she has gotten far enough along with the different crops she thinks are more suited that the government has stopped this kind of pressure.
There are about 500 species in the orchard, not all of which will be usable in the long run. She continues to replace those that are failures with others that might work. Even so, she has to consider the water: they get only 50 mm of rain each year (Be'er Sheva, not so much farther north, gets three times as much). It's not easy, but it's obvious she loves what she does. I could have listened to her for days, not just an hour or so.
I found myself talking about the orchards a lot in the week I was still in Israel after the ride; they're managing to do so many impressive things! That, and the Arava Institute in general. Every student, every alumnus/a is another person from whom the ideas of environmental awareness and peaceful coexistence ripple out. I'm extremely glad to support them with my riding; the ride provides some ridiculously large percentage of their budget, which has allowed them to expand the program much faster than would otherwise have been feasible.