The Date Palm

The date palm may well be the world's oldest food producing plant. A native of what is now Iraq, the date, or Phoenix dactylifera, is a member of the Palm family, a group of trees with no branches, topped by large crowns of leaves, each leaf from 10 to 20 feet in length. It is cousin to the lily, orchids and the grasses. Each of these very different plants rose by first putting out a single leaf from its seed. (Plant a date pit and see what we mean.)

Growing rapidly, as much as one foot per year, and as high as 80-100 feet, the date palm appreciates having its feet in the water and its head in the sun, not unlike a duck. It thrives naturally, therefore, in oases. These are typically dry, warm places of little rainfall but an adequate underground water supply.

Thousands of years ago, the date palm grew in such natural places, when people were still following herds of wild animals and gathering plant foods to eat each day. Wild date palm seeds dating back 50,000 years have been found in the Shanidar Cave of northern Iraq. The date was the basis of the diet of these early cave dwellers and essential to their well being in other ways. Its leaves provided shade from the sun and shelter from dust storms.

As the date palm grows in both male and female varieties, and in the wild is pollinated only by wind, without human involvement it gives out little fruit. Early people learned to place male flowers amongst the female, thus insuring the transfer of pollen. The Sumerians were cultivating the palm by about 5000 BC. This was one of the earliest efforts by human beings to deliberately create a staple, reliable source of food.

Soon the date palm was providing the Sumerians not only with food and shade, but also building materials, animal feed, tools and rope. It became the core of the first human culture we call civilized--- the Sumerians were the earliest people we know of to create a means of writing. ( They were tracking grain supplies.) They also developed laws and invented the wheel.

No wonder that the date palm, symbolizing peace, justice and supply, was pictured in the earliest sculptures deemed sacred to the Sumerians, as well as to the Babylonians and Assyrians who followed them. Egyptians, too, honored it. Later the date palm was important to three of the world's major religious groups, the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians.

In the Jewish tradition palm fronds are used to build the “soukkot” or harvest festival shelter. They are also one of the five sacred plants displayed during the harvest festival. Christians worldwide carry palm fronds to commemorate the passage of Jesus through Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

One ancient Muslim tale describes the date palm as the chief food created by God to nourish Adam in the guardian of Eden. The palm was also said to have been the building material for Mohammed's home. The founder of Islam urged his followers to "cherish your father’s sister, the palm tree." Dates were supposedly Mohammed's favorite fruit and there are some 26 references to them in the Koran. (Incidentally, towards the end of the fighting during the 1991 Gulf War, surrendering Iraqi soldiers climbed from their bunkers offering dates in exchange for water. For many, the date was the only sustenance available during weeks of coalition air strikes.) Muslims also break their Ramadan or New Year's fast each night by eating a date.

When we say date palm, we are referring to hundreds of varieties of dates, all bearing different names, some sweet, some less so, some highly perishable, some almost hard, and so on. The driest dates have long been important for their use as flour by desert people. The Deglet Noor is the name of today's most popular date variety.

Iraq used to grow up to 80 percent of the world's dates, and that history has long been featured on their coins, stamps and bills. Saudi Arabia is another principal producer of dates and their national symbol includes the date palm above crossed swords.The North African countries of Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria also honor the date on their stamps and currency.

Though there are not too many places on earth where the date palm grows well, it has made inroads beyond North Africa and the Middle East. Pockets of date palm groves can now be found in Southern California, southwestern Arizona, an area north of Las Vegas, Nevada and in parts of Mexico. Southern Peru and northern Chile in South America, too. Dates grow near Alice Springs in Australia as well as in Western China, Western India and southern Pakistan. Iran is now thought to be the world's No. 1 producer of dates.

Marco Polo is said to have carried date seeds to Italy from India in the 13th century, though their propagation does not seem to have been successful. The word “date" evidently entered the English language about the same time, and dates were known to medieval diners elsewhere in Europe from the 14th century.

The Moors brought dates to Spain from North Africa where they still grow today in Alicante, providing considerable economic benefit to the region. The Spanish carried date palm seedlings with them into their American colonies, first attempting to establish a plantation in Cuba in 1513. The Friars establishing the missions in California planted palms along their route in the late 1700’s but few of these yielded much harvest.

Early in the 1900s, commercial date pioneers brought Algerian stock plants to California where they continue to thrive today in hot climate communities like Thermal, Coachella and Indio, home of the National Date Festival.

Dates are grown similarly in many places, but the best example of an organic method of growing the date palm comes from 0man, where the palm makes possible what we call three-tiered agriculture. The tall palm shelters the shorter, broader citrus tree which in turn gives shade to sweet potatoes, squash and lentils, all sharing the water below. Palms grown in this way are grown in rows with irrigation, as are the huge groves of commercial growers. And nothing is wasted of this valuable plant. Even today building materials, mats, tools, cattle feed, even landfill derive from the palm.

In many places, dates are still handpicked, by workers who cut the fronds and shake the dates into buckets. Machines called "cherry pickers" are often used in conjunction with mechanical shakers in more mechanized means of production.

When it's time to sell the dates many tons are exchanged the old-fashioned way, by individual vendors in street markets or small shops. Most dates in the world are sold where they are grown. American growers, however, ship their products all around the country.

Eating dates remains the greatest pleasure---whether it's North African date bread or Dateland, Arizona date milk shakes, made with vanilla ice cream, milk and date crystals. Arabs eat dates stuffed in a fish called shad, Moroccans make date cakes, but the finest treat for all date eaters may well be the simplest-- fresh dates, right off the bunch.

Primary reference: The Date Palm, by Hilda Simon, Dodd Mead, 1987.

Links:
http://agronomy.ucdavis.edu/gepts/pb143/CROP/Date/Date.htm
http://www.redpalmweevil.com/introDatepalm.htm
http://www.nizwa.net/agr/dates/