Back in the 1980′s the Coachella Valley was not very well known.  It was not as secluded as say the times of celebrities of yesteryear, but it was time when you could go down the street on your bike without seeing a car for hours.  Date orchards were much more plentiful, and I suspect date production was much higher.  There were medjool dates and even more deglet noor dates.  Not so much anymore.  Now there are tons of golf courses where there used to be medjool date orchards or other date orchards.  I still remember walking to a date orchard not too long ago.  The owner was a woman and many a person thought she was a fool when she bought a 20 acre date orchard for almost $1 million.  Then the desert boom.  There were golf courses everywhere and that orchard stood out until it of course sold for about six times what the original owner paid.  Then of course the real estate market collapsed, now she could buy another 20 acre orchard for half of what she sold her orchard for.  Sadly, much of the date production has been converted into golf courses.  Good for the seller, but not the best use of land.  Not much of  a benefit from irrigating a lot of desert land for the purpose of growing grass so people can chase a ball.

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