Linn also tells of the elderly Haj - a religious Muslim who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca - who came to him after hearing the liqueur could cure impotence. "I've seen improvements in other cases, too, as well as all the customers who use it with their wives or girlfriends and say it has a very good effect on their sex lives," Mr. I saw the results of his lab tests after a few weeks and his sperm count had doubled. I told him about Mandragora and he started taking it. "One of my customers had been married for three years and he couldn't have children. "There is scientific evidence that it can help sexual activity both for men and for women. "I'm a pharmacist, so I knew about this plant and its effect," Mr. Samir Absawi, who runs the Ibn Sina Pharmacy near Mary's Well in Nazareth, 50 kilometres away, says he has sold many bottles of Mandragora to satisfied customers and has seen scientific evidence of its effectiveness. Stories about the kibbutz love-potion have whistled through the hills and valleys of northern Israel, where half the population are Arabs. While they agree the mandrake is poisonous, they have been unable to find any reason that it should work as an aphrodisiac. They tell him it is doing wonders for their sex lives, increasing sperm counts and curing impotence. Linn says he sells drinks, not legends, but his satisfied customers keep coming back for more, bearing tales of enhanced potency and new heights of sexual satisfaction.
It seems a fitting location to grow a crop whose mysterious legends reach back to biblical times. (In a normal year, he can produce 20,000 bottles, but the recent lack of rain has hurt the crops.)įrom his mandrake field, he has a stunning view over the Valley of Jezreel, a historic crossroads for batallions of invading armies who fought for control of the Holy Land since the invasion of the ancient Israelites led by Joshua.īehind the kibbutz tower the legendary slopes of Mount Megiddo, the biblical Armageddon, which, according to the New Testament's Book of Revelations, will be the site of the mother of all battles before the end of days. Last year, he produced about 2,000 bottles, each one a fifth of a litre, which he sells from the kibbutz for around 45 sheckels ($16) each. In the spring, the waxy yellow fruit will grow and then he will harvest this year's crop. At this time of year, all that can be seen of the plant are its large, broad, deep green leaves lying flat on the ground. He has planted about three acres of mandrake, which he tends between his other duties. Linn spends most of his time ploughing the fields of the kibbutz. "I've been married twice and I've been around a bit, but I've never seen anything like that. "I don't know what's in that stuff, and I don't care," he adds. She said: 'I don't know what happened to me.' Then she told me to go out and buy another 10 bottles. I didn't feel anything in particular, but when we went to bed, she went absolutely crazy. Micha told me to drink one cup and give her two. "I don't believe in all this nonsense, but I bought a bottle for my girlfriend and we decided to try it," Mr. Reuven Shalev, a twice-married 54-year-old who lives near the kibbutz in northern Israel, says Mandragora took him by surprise. Now hundreds of people are flocking to the tiny workshop to buy the distinctive triangular bottles of the golden liqueur - which tastes fruity and medium-sweet, with a kick. It destroyed the natural flavour of the fruit."īy 1996, with some help from another winemaker, he had perfected the drink, and Mandragora (the Greek name for mandrake) was launched on a modest scale. "They used a process which involved boiling the drink instead of fermenting it. He approached a local winery and, after considerable experimentation, produced a first batch in 1992. "The mandrake grows naturally in the wild in this region and the fruit smells so good I wanted to do something with it," he says. Linn, who has lived on Kibbutz Mishmar Ha-Emek since he was born, hit on the idea of producing a liqueur from mandrake fruit after reading in the Bible of its mystical sexual properties. Now, Micha Linn, a 74-year-old farmer on a kibbutz in northern Israel, is using the root to create Mandragora, a sweet liqueur that not only tastes good and is safe to drink, but is being hailed through the valleys of the Galilee as a sensational new aphrodisiac. But while prized for its potency, mandrake has also been used as an anesthetic and feared for its power as a poison.
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