DATES : Landmark survives despite development, limited water resources and competition from other crops.
The date palm’s elegant silhouette endures here as a desert landmark despite decades of encroachment by condominiums, putting greens and swimming pools.
These exotic transplants, brought from North Africa a century ago, remain a viable crop in the face of sprawling real estate developments, increasingly tight water supplies and the introduction of other, less troublesome crops.
The palms’ survival is due primarily to the fact that its silky textured fruit with the distinctive caramel, nut-like flavor commands a handsome $3 to $5 a pound. But just as important, the Californians who grow virtually all of the nation’s dates are expert at adapting to the times.
Indeed, some growers have become wealthy by selling their date gardens--the proper term for the stands of palms--to land speculators. But others--forced out by golf courses and time-share developments--simply relocated.
When displaced from the prime growing areas in and around Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage they moved farther south down the Coachella Valley, sometimes far afield from the original plantings.
“When you are talking about something as stately as a palm garden and that goes down for a golf course or condos then it is quite a change,” said Karl Killefer, marketing director for California Redi-Date here. “And for the locals, that has a real psychological impact.”
Change sometimes offers an opportunity to start again.
In fact, in the past five years more than 2,500 acres of the Coachella have been planted for the first time with date gardens. The additional acreage has more than offset loses incurred during the valley’s building boom of the last decade.
It is on the lightly traveled side roads, at either end of this town for instance, where it’s quickly apparent that the date industry is still healthy--producing more improved varieties and imaginative products than in the past.
And the names of the fruit, as always, remain musical: Medjool, Barhi, Kasib, Deglet Noor, Zahidi and more than 100 others.
Many of the older, expansive palm gardens spread across lots the size of several city blocks. And the rows of carefully groomed trees, some of which soar several stories, form a much more inviting landscape than the indigenous sagebrush and sand.
These settings, framed by the rugged San Jacinto Mountain Range to the west, recall the fictional oases of desert lore. And the scene takes on a dream-like quality whenever a gentle, winter wind rustles the countless palm fronds into their distinctive whisper.
Certainly, Southern Californians, who have traveled to the area 130 miles south of Los Angeles, can fondly recall their first taste of these subtly sweet fruits. Or remember, as vividly, sipping a date shake at one of several roadside stands that offer the rich drinks. Over the years the National Date Festival, scheduled to begin Feb. 17, has also brought the fruit to the attention of many.
“People have come here for 30, 40 years and the children pick up where the parents leave off,” said Ed Kirby, owner of Valerie Jean Date Garden on Highway 86, the desert’s oldest roadside stand and gift shop. “Even truckers will regularly stop by and get a package of dates just to eat on the road.”
And it is to these visitors, as well as life-long residents, that news of the date growers’ current fate is welcome.
To many of Mediterranean ancestry, dates are prized as a treat for special occasions. Others, who learned of the fruit here in the desert, went onto introduce them to children and grandchildren as a natural snack or as ingredients in baked goods and other dishes.
Los Angeles’ proximity and ethnic diversity made it the logical choice as the industry’s leading marketplace. And it is; followed closely by San Francisco.
Growers and processors hope this regional audience will expand as their crop benefits from its nutritional profile, one that is high in dietary fiber and potassium while being fat-free despite the syrupy, seductive taste.
“Dates are a high-fiber fruit and we just need to get that across,” said David Marguleas, merchandising manager for Sun World, which markets 30% of the state’s $17.9-million crop through its Sun Date subsidiary. “They are riding a wave of popularity and consumption is going up. We’re also hoping that dates will follow raisins and prunes in terms of consumer preference.”
Area growers are trying to latch onto the dried-fruit bandwagon, but in a modest way. The industry’s promotional literature features a cartoon character in the form of a date. As the nation now knows, a somewhat similar theme was used to make California’s raisins famous.
“The date industry is experiencing the first good sales season in probably the last five or six years, “ said Killefer. “Several years ago we lost the consumer. This is the first year we have begun to turn that around. Dates are accepted more as a versatile food, a convenient food for recipes. And the nutritional value of dates is well documented. We’re working hard at promoting that.”
According to the California Date Administrative Committee, about 200 growers harvested 5,000 acres of date palms this past year, or 95% of the U.S. total. Other growing areas include the Imperial Valley and parts of Arizona. With the last fruit picked in January, the season’s crop is expected to total about 34 million pounds, even with the 1987-88 growing season.
“As it is, the amount of dates produced fits nicely with the number of dates consumed,” said Marguleas. But when the young trees planted in recent years begin coming on line, then new markets will be needed.
And as several food companies have found, capturing the interest of consumers can be difficult.
Most people have heard of dates but would be hard pressed to identify one, says Peggy Hartsock with Oasis Date Garden.
“When I go to food shows and display our products people always come up to me and ask, ‘Are these figs?’ ” she said.
Explaining to the uninitiated how dates grow on palm trees is similarly challenging.
The process is labor intensive. It’s precarious as well for those who must care for the gardens and are required to climb each tree about a dozen times a year. These workers are even honored for their agility and skill with a special title: Palmoros.
At this time of year, the growers concern themselves primarily with cleaning the date gardens and pruning after the recently concluded harvest.
In the next few weeks, workers will begin removing the blossoms from the male trees and extracting the pollen. Once enough of the powdery white substance is accumulated, Palmoros will, once again, climb the female date palms and hand pollinate those trees’ blooms.
In some of the older date gardens, wooden ladders are permanently attached to the top of the palms. The ladders grow with the tree and enable workers to reach the taller fronds, some of which are as high as 70 feet.
A mature palm will grow 15 to 18 bunches of dates. Each cluster, when the fruit has reached the size of a pea, must be protected with brown paper covers to ward off birds and rain.
As they begin to ripen from October through January, the Palmoros again climb each palm and remove the bunches for processing. On average, an adult tree will yield between 200 and 300 pounds of fruit.
On some of the more prized varieties, such as the Medjool, the workers climb the palms three times during the typical harvest and hand pick only those fruit that have reached their peak.
After harvest, the dates are rinsed and then sorted according to quality, moisture content and size. The best fruit goes into the fresh market and the lesser grades are diverted into processed items such as confections.
Beyond the labor costs, date gardens require excessive amounts of water, even for this heavily irrigated valley. On average, most gardens are flooded every seven to 10 days during the growing season.
As Hartsock explains the process: “Date palms thrive with their toes in the water and their heads in the sun.”
Only in the past few years has the industry, led by Sun Date, adopted drip irrigation, which lessens the amount of water used and more efficiently applies it.
Planting citrus trees, primarily grapefruit, between each palm has also made better use of the land and water resources.
But if there is any significant change occurring in the cultivation of the dates then it is the emergence of the Medjool, which originated in Morocco. This is the largest variety, darker in color and with a more sophisticated flavor. Although the Deglet Noor comprises about 85% of the date acreage, many of growers are paying increased attention to the higher-priced Medjool.
At the same time the industry has come to terms with the changing nature of the Coachella Valley, increased its efficiency and expanded marketing efforts, it has also become disenchanted by the festival that carries its name.
Several growers said they no longer participate in the National Date Festival in Indio because the event has lost sight of its namesake.
“It isn’t anything more than a county fair,” said Killefer, “except that it has camel rides.”
Marguleas of Sun World said his company has not participated in the festival for more than a decade.
“Unlike the Garlic Festival in Gilroy or the Artichoke Festival in Castroville, the Date Festival gives very little prominence to dates. It’s just the way the organizers have approached it,” he says.
No one, however, gets too heated about the issue. The desert life’s slow pace encourages a general acceptance of things as they are.
Kirby, of Valerie Jean, says as much: “There aren’t many problems at present. But that could change if they start putting in lots of polo fields and things like that.”
