Human Property Hanging in the Family Tree Yields a Harvest

For one woman, Lake Calhoun naming controversy is personal

This is the same strand of dates. As you can see, there are a lot less dates on the strand, but the number of pounds per tree will be the same, it's just that the dates will be significantly larger. Date trees take as much water as a willow tree, yet they cannot tolerate rain or humidity. That's why dates have to be grown in the hot desert, where our average rainfall is less than 3 inches per year, and our summer temperatures reach nearly degrees. The ground around the date trees has to be kept clear of grass and weeds which cause humidity. Special "borders" are built up around the trees in order to flood irrigate and contain the water at the root of the tree.

This special border disker scoops up the sand and forms a border around the date trees.

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These borders keep the water where it is needed, at the root of the date trees. Each tree requires approximately 60, gallons of water per year, but only at its roots! You could think of it as someone who likes to wade in the water, but doesn't want to get their hair wet!

The borders help conserve water and eliminate grass and weeds throughout the grove. Our foreman is holding a small "bunch" of dates that has been cut down from the tree. Notice the thickness of the main stalk. This picture was taken early last August, before the dates had ripened. A bunch of dates not Medjools just prior to the date harvest.

Around the beginning of August, the Medjool Dates are covered with a white muslin bag to protect the dates from birds and insects. The bags also help to catch any dates that ripen prior to the beginning of the date harvest.

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Because each bunch is quite heavy, the fronds below the date bunches are positioned to help hold the weight of the dates. All of our date trees are grown from pups offshoots from the parent tree. This guarantees that both the tree and the fruit produced will be identical to the parent. It takes between 6 to 8 years before the pups will be big enough to transplant, and then another six or seven years before they will begin to produce.

To make it easier to separate the pups from the parent tree, we have attached a special chisel to the backhoe. The backhoe can exert quite a bit more force then an individual worker.

A date pup partially separated from it's parent tree. After the new pups have been planted, they are given a "flat top" haircut, and wrapped in cardboard to protect the heart. They will receive a constant flow of water thru a drip irrigation system. Although many date farms still use ladders, we use a U-Shaped basket on a forklift to reach the dates.

We will be able to utilize this method until the trees are approx. The forklift will be parked at the base of the tree, so that the tree trunk is positioned between the forks. The basket will then be lifted to an appropriate height so the dates can be easily harvested. As the basket is being lifted into the tree, the pickers are holding plastic trays that will be suspended from a branch so that they will hang underneath the date bunches while they harvest the dates.

Once the trays are in place the pickers will untie the bottom of the bags covering the dates and shake out any dates that have already ripened and fallen off the strands. If you look at the bag to the far left side of the picture, you can see that all of the dates have ripened and fallen to the bottom of the bag.

This is unusual, as most Medjool dates have to be individually removed from the strands by hand.

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Once the tray is full, it will be lowered down and an empty tray will be sent back up. The full trays will be emptied into a larger screened tray, then taken to the processing area for sorting. The dates are brought in from the grove in either these large wooden screen trays, or else in smaller black plastic trays. Most of the dates come in from the grove already ripe, but occasionally we get some that are still yellow. These yellow dates have to be left out in the heat not the sun to finish ripening.

We do receive a lot of requests for "yellow dates" but we don't sell them at that stage because it is impossible to guarantee that the dates will not have finished ripening by the time they are received. Commenters must follow our Terms of Use. Continue to site Snapshots Star Tribune Many places in the arrowhead you will find darkness like no other area, illuminating the winter night sky with breathtaking constellations.

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How are Dates Grown? Harvesting Dates at Dateland Date Gardens

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