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The Romance and Sex Life of the Date

by Diane & Chuck Brady

hat’s right, the Romance and Sex Life of the Date — that sweet, succulent desert delight. But we’ll go into that a bit later.

Ninety-five percent of the dates grown in the United States come from the area around Indio, in Southern California’s Coachella Valley, about 25-miles east of Palm Springs.

Dates, of course, came from the Middle East, where they have been cultivated for over 6,000 years, probably the oldest tree crop. How the trees survived, much less became a valuable crop, without the help of humans is nearly unimaginable. Again, more on that later.

The surrounding area tries to evoke a Middle-Eastern flair — there are the Coachella Valley High School Arabs and the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival (February 13 – 22), with Queen Scheharazade, nightly Arabian Nights musical, and the daily camel races.

And, of course, Shields Date Gardens, on Highway 111 (the Date Garden Highway) in Indio. You can’t miss it — the “Guardian of Quality” (a large figure of a knight in armor) points the way — a prime example of 1950s roadside “art.”

… that sweet, succulent desert delight.

Inside you can buy many different varieties of dates, with a plethora of free samples to help you decide which treats to buy. Or, there is the famous “date shake” — actually a vanilla shake with chopped-up dates in it. Quite tasty, really!

So now, finally, the juicy stuff. In their theater, running continuously, is the feature attraction, The Romance and Sex LIfe of the Date.

Now, many plants have both male and female parts in the same plant. Not so the date palm! There are definite male and female trees. Here is where it really gets good. The palms are planted 50 to the acre — 49 gals and 1 guy! A real harem. And the poor guy needs help.

At the proper time, humans have to climb the male tree to collect the pollen-laden stalks. This is not a task for the faint-of-heart, as these palms get very tall — they actually fasten ladders to the trees, adding to them as the trees grow. They also wrap the stalks so none of the pollen is lost.

Just as human females have a pretty short time of fertility, so also the date palm female. At the proper time (how all of this got figured out is beyond our comprehension), up into the female trees go the pollinators, where the pollen stalks are ever-so-carefully shaken over the eagerly waiting female parts.

Then the waiting begins. It takes from March ‘til fall for the dates to ripen, but then, being female, the fruit is rather coy about this, and all the dates do not ripen at the same time. So the harvesters have to make many trips up the trees and hand-pick the dates as they decide to ripen. Talk about labor-intensive!

There you have it, the Romance and Sex Life of the Date. Rather steamy, don’t you think?

Shields Date Gardens: tel. 800/414-2555; www.shieldsdategarden.com.

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The Guardian of Quality
Chuck Brady photo


Date Palm Grove
Chuck Brady photo