Save the date -- it’s more than just nature’s candy, with 12 recipes

Yet one more reason Southern California is superior to any other region in the country – dates in the fall. While the rest of America is forced to get by on apples and pears, we get luscious, sweet dates, tasting like caramel or honey with a texture that ranges from crisp to chewy, even to syrupy.

It can come as a shock if you’ve ever traveled to another region. Go looking for dates and you’re likely to wind up with hard little pellets that look like rabbit food. They may be OK for baking, but just barely. Eat those things out of hand? Forget it.

But in Southern California, not only do we get dates that haven’t dried into pebbles, we get a more than a half-dozen varieties of them. And at farmers markets, you can even find them at various stages of ripeness, from the apple-crisp khalal Barhis, sold on the branch, to rutab Medjools that resemble nothing so much as a barely jelled sugar syrup encased in a thin crust.

Which dates you prefer will depend on your taste, the farmer and the exact time of the fall you’re shopping, so the best advice is to sample each and see what meets your approval. I’m normally a Medjool or Barhi guy, but last weekend the grower at my market had Halawys that were nearly custardy. Exquisite.

Put these on a platter with some sliced Honeycrisp apples or Bartlett pears and you’ve got a perfect fall dessert. In a couple of weeks, when the first good mandarins come in, that makes a magical combination.

How to choose: For the most part, choosing dates is as simple as picking the ones you like – they are either dried or semi-dried, so they are not as fragile as most other fruits. The one thing I do is give them a good smell to check for any fermented odors.

How to store: You can keep most dates at room temperature for at least a week. The semi-dried rutab dates do need to be refrigerated, as do any dates you’re planning on saving for an extended period.

Are you a food geek? Follow me on Twitter @russ_parsons1