Aug 24, 2022
Not many of us look at palm trees and immediately think of growing dates and yet, this episode may change that for you! And that's one of the things that visiting a date farmer brings out, but the process of working trees that reach the heights and ages of date palms also brings up more questions.
Luckily, I found the right place in the Coachella Valley just outside of Palm Springs to get all my questions answered -- Hadley's Date Gardens where Albert Keck was ready to show me around. And some of the trees I saw have been in the valley for 80-100 years -- that's a lot of jam, cookies, energy bars, etc!
The push for taste and nutrition in our diets means dates are a popular item these days. And workers -- called palmeros -- go up and down the trees half a dozen times a year to deliver that sweet treat to us!
We talk about the steps in growing them and Albert tells us about the ways dates can help us recover from that hot desert sun.
See photos and videos at https://groundedbythefarm.com/growing-dates/