![]() ![]() Some 30 years ago he discovered one of the oldest olive presses to be unearthed in the country, after which the intrepid amateur archaeologist followed his intuition and began excavating a hill near the Shomria kibbutz high-school where he had been educated, and discovered an ancient city practically in his own backyard. An insatiable creative sense of curiosity and ardent love of the land and its inhabitants since biblical times propelled him not only to cultivate the land but also excavate parts of it around his kibbutz. The son of pioneer parents who came from Poland to the Jezreeel Valley 85 years ago to found kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek, Micha was the second child born in the community and has lived there all his life. ![]() "I thought it was time to give up the place for one of the younger members," he shrugs. If some sort of spell be cast, the animal would go mad, deaf or die and not the person," explains Linn, who began to expand a lifetime interest in the plant and its perceived properties when he retired from plowing kibbutz cotton fields just 18 months ago. When the person walked away, the animal would naturally follow and the plant be yanked out of the ground. ![]() "During the Middle Ages they would dig up the soil around the mandrake's roots and then tie a dog or a horse to the stem. In the Middle Ages mandrake properties were used as the basic ingredient of love potions, but harvesters were fearful of pulling the plant out of the ground as the superstitious potion preparers believed they would go mad, or be deafened and even possibly die if they heard a mandrake shrieking. The large, lengthy roots of the mandrake measuring some 70 to 80 centimeters are bulbous, twisted and some say - and have written over the ages - resemble the lower part of the human body. Some areas of the Galilee where mandrakes flourished in the past were acquired by land developers and the construction work consequently killed off the plant's fertile patches, although there are still mandrakes to be found elsewhere in the region. The plant, also known as the shrieking or screaming plant, grows in the wild throughout the Menashe Hills forest behind Linn's abode. The mandrake is also known to be rather poisonous, so one really needs to know what to do when producing mandrake liqueur. On his small winery, 80-year-old kibbutznik Micha Linn produces exotic liqueurs, one in particular proving to be much in demand for its more-than-spiritual kick.Īlthough scientists have conceded there is no concrete evidence that the mandrake plant has qualities beyond being an attractive and highly aromatic plant producing tasty fruit, rife rumors and biblical writings have led many to believe that there might be some aphrodisiac and fertility qualities there as well. NOTE! Consider delaying until first div on page If (slot) slot.addService(googletag.pubads()) (function (a, d, o, r, i, c, u, p, w, m) ![]()
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