'Mad' quest to revive ancient dates bears fruit

Solowey posing next to "Methuselah", the first male palm tree germinated from 2,000-year-old seeds discovered in the Judean desert, in Kibbutz Ketura, southern Israel. Photos: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP

When Sarah Sallon first thought of cultivating 2,000-year-old date palm seeds from a Roman-era fortress towering above the Dead Sea, she received a less than encouraging response.

"The botanical archaeologists said 'you're completely mad. It will never work'," the 72-year-old British-Israeli expert on natural medicine told AFP.