Date Palms can be found in many locations in
the Coachella Valley. Dates are among the oldest of the cultivated fruit
in the world. Many of the dates in the Coachella Valley come
from the Middle East including many varieties from Iraq.
The
National Date Festival is an annual event held in Indio - and
features exhibits and competitions relating to the date. This
festival is usually held in February. Please visit:
www.datefest.org for more information.
Three of Dave's favorite places to purchase dates are Hadley's Date Gardens, Shields Date Gardens
& Oasis Date Gardens. The three listings below are retail
outlets and all will ship dates via the mail.
Visit their
respective websites for ordering information. All stores below
provide tasting samples of the dates before you buy.
Photo to left: Dates on the palm before harvesting
Hadley Date Gardens are located off the 10 freeway about 12
miles west of the turnoff on 111 for Palm Springs. Hadley's is located
in the small town of Cabezon - at the Morongo Valley Casino turnoff -
when you see the tall Indian Casino looming nearby you know you are very
close to Hadley's. Of the three date gardens listed here, this one is
the most touristy. It is not located on the site of where the dates are
actually grown.
You however, can
choose from many varieties of packed whole dates. They also sell
chopped dates, dried dates, and the wonderful date crystals. The
date shake is truly a wonderful drink. It is a MUST try!
Hadley's has added their own twist to the regular date shake;
they offer a banana date shake which is out of this world.
Hadley's has their
own restaurant on the side of the store. Choose from standard
fare such as hot dogs, hamburgers and other food. Bathrooms are
behind the main store, exiting through the back
door.
Visit their website:
www.hadleys.com
Just east of Hadley's are two enormous dinosaur statues next to
interstate 10. Inside one of these statues is a store that sells
rocks and small trinkets. At night the eyes of these dinosaurs
light up and become green and red.
Shields Date Gardens
established in 1924 is located at 80225 Highway 111 in Indio on
the north side of the highway. This is about a 25-35 minute
drive south on the 111 from downtown Palm Springs.
Shield's Dates are among the oldest Date Gardens in the area.
The main store has a real neat 50's feel. In fact nostalgia is a
very appropriate word to describe Shields. Their main store is
located right in front of their actual date gardens. They also
grow and sell very fresh grapefruit and tangerines.
Be sure to try one of their famous date shakes. If you look at the date trees you will see
metal ladders extending high up to the actual palm part of the trees.
This is how they pick the dates. Unfortunately most of the surrounding
land near Shield's farms has been cannibalized for strip malls and other
urban development so the surrounding atmosphere is not as nice as it
used to be.
The "Shields Knight in Armor"
While here you can view a video in their 108 seat theatre, called "Romance and Sex Life of
the Date." There is a lot more to cultivating and growing dates
than meets the eye. All cultivated date palms at Shields undergo hand
pollination. That means someone must climb up to the top of the date
trees during the right time and hand pollinate each bunch of dates!
Note: in 2005 Shields Date Gardens was sold to the
Jewel Date Company. PHONE
NUMBER: (760) 347-0996. The Shields Date Gardens is open daily from 10 to 6 PM.
119 varieties of dates are grown here. If you visit their store, you can
pick up their free sheet listing about ten date recipes including the
one for their Date Shakes. Visit
their website for more information:
www.shieldsdates.com
and to order gift packs.
The Oasis Date Gardens
is located in Thermal which is about
another 10 miles south of Indio at 59-111 Highway 111 on the west side
of the highway.
This is a 250 acre pioneer date garden,
packing house, and retail shop. There is a picnic area and a cafe. The
main store is located right among the date gardens - there are
smaller trees located here than at some of the other date farms
(more recently planted), and when in season, its very easy to
see the dates hanging from the trees right in front of you. One nice
feature is that they have open buckets of many varieties of dates - you
simply put on plastic gloves and put as many as you want into a bag. The
other two farms mentioned above have the dates already sealed
up in
packages or bags. PHONE NUMBER:
1-800-827-8017. Open daily from 6 AM to 5:30 PM.
Website:
www.oasisdategardens.com
About
Dave's Pick