Bethlehem Carob Wood

The Carob Tree is the only Tree in the Holy Land that can outlive the olive tree. The carob fruit is known as St. John's bread. You can count the Carob Trees in Bethlehem using your fingers because they are very few. The most popular one is the tree by Rachel's Tomb at the entrance of Bethlehem on the Bethlehem Jerusalem Road. It is said that this same tree had witnessed the burial of Rachel to what became known as Rachel's Tomb. The picture of this same tree was used in the first country stamp in 1948.

The seeds of the Carob Tree is the ancient and original weight used by goldsmiths for a carat. Because the carob seed is always the same weight. On the other hand the Carob wood has a varying and different color. It ranges from dark red to pink and creamy colors and some have veins running through the wood.

Important: Because of the very limited supply of this rare Carob wood and because we want to share it with everyone there is a limit of 12 blanks per customer.

Note: The quantity discount does not apply for the Carob Wood

There is a big similarity of the carob wood and the Jerusalem stones. The similarity is in both the color and the strength.

This picture shows both the carob wood pen blanks and Jerusalem Stones inscribed with the words... Hope, Freedom and Justice with a Jerusalem Stone Peace Dove in the middle.

The Carob tree (from Arabic: خروب "kharūb" and Hebrew: חרוב Charuv), Ceratonia siliqua, is a leguminous evergreen shrub or tree of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) native to the Mediterranean region. It is cultivated for its edible seed pods. Carobs are also known as St. John's bread. According to tradition of some Christians, St. John the Baptist subsisted on them in the wilderness.[1] A similar legend exists of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son.
This tree grows up to 10 meters tall[citation needed]. The crown is broad and semi-spherical, supported by a thick trunk with brown rough bark and sturdy branches. Leaves are 10–20 cm long, alternate, pinnate, and may or may not have a terminal leaflet[citation needed].

Most carob trees are dioecious. The trees blossom in autumn (September-October). The flowers are small and numerous, spirally arranged along the inflorescence axis in catkin-like racemes borne on spurs from old wood and even on the trunk (cauliflory); they are pollinated by both wind and insects[citation needed]. Male flowers produce a characteristic odour[citation needed], resembling semen[citation needed]. The fruit is a pod which can be elongated, compressed, straight or curved, and thickened at the sutures[citation needed]. The pods take a full year to develop and ripen - up to the next flowring season, the following autumn[citation needed]. The ripe pods eventually fall to the ground and are eaten by various mammals, thereby dispersing the seed[citation needed].
Carob is a member of the legume family, and as such its roots host bacteria which convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates which can be used by plants to make proteins.

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