Medjool Dates Mania

07/08/2024 English German

Edition # 154
San Francisco, 07-08-2024

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Medjool Dates Mania

Figure [1]: Five pounds of dates for 20 Dollars from a street vendor.

Michael When we were traveling in the southernmost part of California some time ago, we noticed a palm grove off the road, which turned out to be a plantation for harvesting dates. At the next side street, we turned right, and there, standing by the roadside in the blazing sun, was a date vendor whose face had already developed date-like wrinkles from spending so much time in the sun.

Figure [2]: The box was empty after a week.

As you know, I'm a big fan of dates, so I pulled over to check things out. I got out, approached the folding table where the man had stacked huge red boxes. Wordlessly, he offered me an open box, and I picked out a date with my fingers and ate it. "How much?" I asked, and the man said, "20 dollars!" I fished a twenty out of my pocket, gave it to the man, and received a full box in return. I can tell you, these were the best dates in the Northern Hemisphere. The Medjool date is the queen of dates, and if you can get them fresh, you should grab them immediately. The five pounds were gone in a week. Angelika had already expressed concerns that my mouth or stomach would soon stick together.

Figure [3]: This Youtube video shows all the steps for date harvesting

The Medjool dates were dark brown, fleshy, and juicy, likely having been harvested shortly before. When you buy dates at the supermarket here, 95% of the time they come out of the package looking light brown and shriveled. And if you check the packing date, it's usually about a month old. Naturally, the shriveling process sets in—so hands off!

By the way, date cultivation on plantations is a science in itself, as I recently learned from a YouTube video about date cultivation. Not only are hundreds of palm trees pollinated by hand and machines, and it can take six or seven years for a palm to bear fruit, but during harvest time, special shakers drive through the rows of the plantation. These machines attach to each palm trunk, and two huge grippers shake the palm so that the ripe dates fall into spread-out nets. A single mature palm tree can yield up to 75 kg of dates per season. After harvest, the dates are transported through huge halls on conveyor belts, where workers sort out the rotten ones, and special robots pack the good ones into plastic boxes that you later see in supermarkets. But, as I said, be careful when buying dates!