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Stealing: Why I love and respect Medjool Dates

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Get your Free Dates here!  Have you ever walked into a grocery store and saw a decorative box of fresh medjool dates by the fruit section.  Being an avid Costco Warehouse Store Shopper I thought these boxes of dates where samples and always made sure to grab one or two.  It wasn’t until I sampled a date in front of another shopper that it was pointed out to me that the dates where $8.79 a pound and that I really should be more thoughtful being that a bag of 1 pound of dates was equivalent to about 15 dates.  I was so mortified for the first 15 seconds and then I sprang into laughter over the whole date ordeal.  I thanked the customer for educating me on the fact that the dates where for sale, and remarked at how surprised I was given that the price was not directly over the box, but written off to the side.  The shopper really didn’t believe my excuse but walked on.

I must have eaten at least 3 pounds of free dates over the past year, being that I always grabbed 2 for me and one each for my 2 children.  How horrific I felt; yet I did it with innocence never once thinking that I was …STEALING.  Wow, I was stealing dates!  The worst part of it was that my mother and father in law where date farmers, why if I really wanted to eat great quality medjool dates all I had to do was drive down a few miles into the Coachella Valley to the families date farm and get a whole box of my own, for free.

Later that very week I was at my favorite Costco when I noticed this elderly lady in the refrigerator department sampling wild berries.  Sampling was really to kind a word considering she had nearly devoured half the box.  It was $8.99 for the box.  I was truly mortified. When it hit me, my eating the medjool dates was just as bad an offense as hers.  Although I am sure she was aware you are not supposed to be doing that, and at the time I really believed the box was for sampling dates.  I must admit I was embarrassed to return to the grocery store that I had eaten so many medjool dates from.  This lady who appalled me was a reflection of my self to the shopper who was brave enough to correct me.

I told my husband what had happened and he was even more appalled at my ignorance of dates and their value.  Thus began the three hour lecture on the value of a date and why they are so costly.  Since then he has had me blogging and studying the medjool date and other dates because he firmly believes we will one day take over that date farm.

Today I am no expert on dates, by far.  The truth is dates have a truly rich extraordinary history.  Cultivating the date has so many tricks of the trade and requirements that I still am a newbie to the industry.  One thing however is clear, I now know that those pretty little boxes of dates are for sale, not sampling.  The store manager refused my box of dates and refused payment understanding why I had felt the way I did.  Today when I walk into that grocery store the dates are clearly marked for sale, my question is, why didn’t they do that before instead of putting the price off to the side and not giving it its own corner space like every other fruit in the market.  Dates are special and they need to be treated as such.  But then again, had it not been for the grocery stores date mistake, I would have never had had the privileged of truly understanding and respecting the date.

All About Dates

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Even though there are a lot of natural foods to choose from most of us only consume a few.  When we go to the supermarket we look at the typical fruits and vegetables and probably buy the same stuff over and over again.  Apples, carrots, oranges, lettuce, tomatos, but there are so many others that are less common, but often available.  Among one of the most popular
foods is dates.  Dates teh fruit, ofte dried dates fruit, not the other date.  Many have never heard of dates.  The benefits of the dates fruit are many.  The fruit called dates grows on date palms.  Date palms are just palms.  Often date palms are called date palm trees, but they are really just palms.  The date palm is more akin to grass than to trees.  The mdjool dates fruit is considered the king of dates and is very sweet and is the largest.  The dates fruit nutrition is very high for potassium and it has a lot of complex carbohydrates.  The date is considered the bread of the desert.  In the middle east people lived on dates for many generations and the dates is mentioned quite a bit in historical records.  To buy dates fruit in the US is a little hard, not all supermarkets carry dates.  There are also many different varieties of dates.  The medjool dates is like a dessert date and is what most people enjoy in the US.  In the middle east there are literally hundreds of dates and the less sweet dates are eaten regularly as food.  Flour is often made from dates in the middle east and consumed as part of the daily diet.  The dates fruit calories count is high, because of the complex carbohydrates, but it has a lot of fiber and is a good alternative to candy bars.  The benefits of the dates fruit is high.  Besides the high potassium content, it has fiber, and qualities that cleanse the intestine and keep the stomach regular.  The dry dates fruit is eaten extensively in the middle east and there is connection between health and the consumption of the date fruit.  There are all types of dates recipes and is gains popularity more are created.  The best dates fruit is considered to be the Medjool Date which at one time was reserved for royalty.  Now it is available to all.  It is not difficult to store dates fruit.  A cool dry place is all that is required.  Refrigeration can keep dates for many months and as long as a year.  In the middle east the dates fruit was stored without refrigeration.  Dried dates fruit are usually not very sweet and are the less sweet varieties.  Dates the fruit come from the Middle East, but California grows the most dates in the United States and the vast majority of dates in the United States come from California.  A few countries other than the middle east grow significant amounts of dtes.  The chinese dates fruit is well known, but it is grown.  The value of dates fruit is determined by the variety.  People buy date fruit on a regular basis in the middle east, but perhaps not so much in the United States.  Dates are often purchased around Christmas in the United States, because that is when the season peaks.
September usually starts the harvest season for dates in California and distribution starts and continues.  Dates the fruit are freshly picked around September and continue for several months.  Dates are best when fresh, though some can get sweeter with time.

Dates Fruit Medjool Dates