In the distant arid desert grows a wholesome fruit date palms that moisturizes everyone in the toughest athletes into the most delicate infants. Whether you fancy Sukkari, Saggae, Ajwa or Medjool, the assortment of dates is as vast and diversified as the ocean. With more than 500 types of dates, Sukkari is the most prized possession once we seek moist, sweet and caramel-like flavour, whereas Ajwa is your go to for its medicinal healing. Saggae dates are a recent addition for those who prefer a less sweet date than the Sukkari date, and for people who enjoy a fibrous, compact yet moist date.
The source of dates is unknown as a result of early cultivation but they are believed to have been cultivated in the Middle East area from approximately 6000 B.C. Fossil records show that the date palm has existed for at least 50 million years.
Since their discovery, customs have widely spread in many regions and were spread by Arabs into Spain, Italy, South West Asia and North Africa. They then were further spread by Spaniards into Mexico and California.
The Date Palm
The date palm has separate male and female plants. Only fifty percent of seedlings will be womanly which are developed from seed but because they develop from seed their seedling plants are often of lesser quality. Most industrial plantations use cuttings of heavily cropping cultivars. Medjool is your principal cultivar that produces particularly high yields of large, sweet fruit. Plants grown from cuttings will fruit 2 to 3 years earlier than seedling plants.
The date hands-free life is restricted to the years once the tree is smaller and the fruit is easier to harvest. Although the date palm is capable of living up to 100 decades or longer and can reach elevation between 15-30 metres. Their crown of green leaves grow between 3 to 6 metres in length.
The Date Pollination Method
In a normal setting, dates are pollinated by wind. Nonetheless, in the commercial orchards they're pollinated manually. Natural pollination occurs with roughly an equal number of female and male plants. On the flip side, 1 male can pollinate up to 100 females. The male date palm is appreciated as a pollinator, this allows the farmers to use their resources to get many more fruit producing female plants. Some farmers do not even bother to maintain any man plants as male flowers become available at neighborhood markets in pollination time. Manual pollination is carried out by skilled labourers using ladders, or in some areas like Iraq or Saudi Arabia they climb the tree with a special climbing tool that wraps round the tree trunk and the farmers back to keep him attached to the trunk whilst scaling. Less often, the pollen might be blown onto the female flowers by a wind system.
The Date Seed & How Dates Grow
Dates contain a single seed roughly 2-2.5 cm long and 6-8 mm thick. The type of fruit is dependent upon the glucose, fructose and sucrose content. The seed of Sukkari is considerably bigger than the seed of Saggae or even Ajwa.
Dates grow in large clusters that develop beneath the leaves and can weigh up to 40 lbs. Large trees will yield over a 1,000 dates every year, although they don't all ripen at the same time so many harvests are demanded. In order to get fruit of marketable quality, the bunches of dates must be emptied and bagged or covered before ripening so the residual fruits grow bigger and therefore are protected from weather and pests such as birds.
The Stages of Date Ripening
Dates, in addition to having different colours, tastes and textures during their ripening phases, they also have different names in Arabic for every stage.
Stages Weeks English Arabic Description
First Stage 1 week - Hababook - The dates are small round and light green with horizontal stripes.
Second Stage 5-17 weeks - Green Date Kimri - The dates turn into oblong, greener and are bitter.
Third Stage 19-25 weeks - Red/Yellow Date Khalal - The next phase is the first ripening stage where the dates are yellowish or reddish, have increased to their entire size and flavor crispy but tender with a slight sweet flavor.
This is where you'd get a barhi date with a crunchy outer shell.
Fourth Stage 20-28 weeks - Wet Date Rutub - This stage the date is ripe, soft and moist. At this stage you are enjoying the beautiful sukkari dates.
Final Stage 29 months - Dried Date Tamar - Final stage of ripening. At this phase you will discover the saggae, ajwa and medjool date.
The previous few stages of ripening are when the dates are picked, fumigated, cleaned, split, packed and then sold to the consumer. Barhi dates would be the yellow clusters which are often found in grocery stores that are crispy and a little astringent because they are in the Khalal stage. Once the crispy yellowish flesh begins to soften, it sweetens and becomes a Rutub enjoy our famous Sukkari Dates. Rutub require pipes to lengthen this stage, before they change for their final phase of a dehydrated date. Saggae, although it's a dried date, is quite soft and moist in comparison to other dried dates.
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