How we get dates
Do you have date trees growing in your yard or neighborhood? Have you ever wondered if you could just walk outside, collect ripe dates, and start eating? If only it was that easy.
The birds, the bees, and the date trees
Date trees come in male and female varieties. The pollen from the male trees must reach the female trees to pollinate them and yield dates. Relying on birds, bees, and wind for pollination, only about 5% of female date trees would bear fruit.
With the help of humans and hand pollination––one of the oldest agricultural practices––the odds and yields can go up to 90%.
A single male date palm can pollinate 50 to 80 female date palms. The male trees don’t move an inch. You’re wondering how this works, right? Here’s what one Arizona woman, Erika Schlather, went through to bring her dates to fruition and market.
Hand pollination
In March, she rented a mechanical lift to go the to top of one of her male date palms after the flower sheaths had fully developed and opened revealing thousands of small, star-shaped flowers. Wearing gloves she collected the creamy white pollen in a cheesecloth bag, came down from the tree, then took the lift up to the top of each of her female trees to dust the small, round, fertile female flowers with pollen.
But wait! The female palms have to be at the right stage of maturity for this to work. If the males are ready but the female fruit clusters haven’t opened yet, you have to store the pollen in a cool dry place until the time is right. Sometimes date trees mature faster than others, so you might have to schedule two pollinations, about two weeks apart. You need to mark the trees you’ve pollinated so you don’t miss any or duplicate your efforts. (See Erica up in the lift?)
Thinning the date palms
In June, when the fruits are about the size of large peas, Erica thinned the individual clusters, so the remaining strands could produce bigger dates. In July or August, the dates begin to change color, from green to red or yellow (see picture right). Red ones turn black and yellow ones turn brown when they’re ripe (see right).
Bagging the dates
Erica rented another a lift for an entire week. She went to the top of each tree, untangled the strands of leaves so she could separately enclose each cluster of dates in a porous nylon-mesh bag, then she took a piece of string (twine works too) and closed each bag tightly with a slip knot so it wouldn’t come off and the birds wouldn’t get into the bags and steal the dates.
Each date cluster can weigh as much as 50 pounds. You have 12 to 14 clusters on every tree. You have to tie each cluster to a frond above it for support, using another piece of twine, then go on to the next cluster. (I'm sure this would count as resistance exercise.) You have to move the lift to make your way around each tree. Consider this an all day endeavor. Erica spent about 3 hours per tree and she worked 2 1/2 to 3 trees a day n 120 degree weather. She learned that you have to wear gloves and goggles to protect your hands and eyes from the sharp spines that grow on the fronds.
Harvesting dates
In October, Erica rented the lift again (at $220 a day) and went up with a handsaw to shear off the stalks of each cluster, put them on the lift (remember each cluster can weigh 50 pounds), and take two clusters down to the ground, then go back up and repeat the process five or six more times. It took her 45 to 60 minutes per tree to get the dates down.
Once on the ground she untied and carefully removed the bags, set the date clusters on a table, and began putting the dates single file on wire trays. You’ll have some perfect dates, some mushy fermented dates, some dried out, and some under ripe dates. You have to separate all of them. The under ripe dates ripened and tured black after about 4 days.
With four people working on this process she ended up with about 60 to 80 trays, each about the size of an average square window screen, full of dates. She hosed them off, let them dry overnight (increase this to a couple of days for a longer shelf life and more stability at room temperature). Drier dates last longer out of the fridge or freezer.
Sorting the good dates from the bad
You have to sort the dates continuously to get rid of the bad ones. Place the good ones in zip-top bags or plastic clamshell containers, then freeze if they’re very moist. "You’ll find some bugs if you’re not using pesticides. Freezing kills them," Erica says. "That’s the reality of not using chemicals. You’ll probably eat some bugs, tiny ones you don’t even notice.”
It’s an amazing amount of work. For her 15 date palms Erica probably spent 2 days pollinating, 2 to 3 (10 to 12 hour) days thinning the leaves, 1 week bagging, and at least 1 (15-hour) day harvesting.
If you don’t own a mechanical lift you’ll have to rent for at least a week, maybe two, which gets expensive. Next year Erica plans to borrow one from a friend who recently purchased one. Ideally a neighborhood of people could share one or two lifts if they all harvest their date trees.
Date yields
Erica figures she harvested 2500 pounds of dates and threw away 1000 to 1200 pounds because some weren’t ripe when she collected them. This was her first season harvesting. If you can spread the harvest out over an entire week, picking each cluster as it’s ready, you’ll have more ripe dates and a higher yield.
To get your hands on great Arizona dates and support Erica's valiant efforts, call her at (602) 505-7892 for Mountgrove Arcadia Black Sphinx Dates. Or visit her at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market Saturday mornings 8 am and 1 pm at 721 N. Central Avenue (SE corner of Central Ave & McKinnley, 2 blocks west of Roosevelt). Her delightful dates sell for $7 a pound. If you freezer space permits, buy 12 pounds (a flat) for $70 to get 2 pounds free.
Photo credits: Erica Schlather, Mountgrove Arcadia Black Sphinx Dates, © Copyright 2008
Thanks to Erica, I now know a lot more about dates and what goes into bringing these treats to my table.
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