The Arrival of Date Harvest Season
by Shahinda Abdalla
In Egypt one of the most iconic sights of the end of summer is the fruiting date palm carrying bunches and bunches of beautiful ripe dates, ranging from yellow to red and dark brown. Our trees might not exactly turn yellow, orange and red but our dates certainly do and when they do we know that summer is coming to a close and the fall season has begun making its appearance. You might already see your local supermarkets or street fruit vendors overflowing with fresh date produce. Most people are familiar with the dried variety or date paste (also known as ajwa in Arabic), but if you haven’t lived in a date-producing country and been around date harvest season, you’re missing out on the experience of eating a fresh date which has a thin leathery skin on the outside that you can bite into like an apple, and not dissimilar to an apple can be quite crisp and crunchy. A single date when held in your hand can look like a chunky finger. In fact, its English name comes from the Greek word for finger daktylos (δάκτυλος) because of the fruit’s elongated shape. The date palm is quite special to the Middle East and North Africa region. The ancient Egyptians were known to make date wine out of the fruit. There is archeological evidence of date cultivation from the region from as early as the 6th millennium BC. Dates and the date palm are particularly sacred for the Abrahamic religions, featuring in the Bible and Qu’ran many times.
Today, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, Egypt is the largest producer of dates worldwide, followed in second place by Saudi Arabia. In 2021, Egypt grew about 1.7 million tonnes of dates. The remarkable thing about this number is that all of these dates have been harvested by hand, and most likely pollinated by hand too. Though dates can be wind pollinated, date farmers tend to hand pollinate as most farmers grow mostly female fruiting trees and you would need an equal number of male and female date palm trees for natural pollination to occur. With assistance, one male tree can pollinate up to 100 female fruit trees. For the harvesting, pollinating and other pruning activities done for the palm trees, a certain kind of laborer becomes invaluable to the entire process — the palm tree climber. Often with a certain type of rope called tabliya that wraps around the tree’s trunk and the climber’s back as he makes his way up trees that can reach up to 30 meters high, this skill is passed down through families and boys begin learning how to climb at the young age of 10.
When the dates are finally harvested, most are dried. Some are sold whole, while others are made into a paste called ajwa that features in many middle eastern desserts and the odd breakfast egg dish — beid bel ajwa (eggs with date paste). From date juice date syrups and jams, much can be made from this seasonal fruit that makes it last all year round. In Ramadan, it is customary for Muslims to break their fast with a date. Dates are known for their high sugar content, but are often forgotten for their nutritional value. They are a great source for dietary minerals such as manganese, potassium, and magnesium. But more than their nutritional value, dates are such an emblematic fruit for us here in Egypt. For regions like Siwa, where the local culture and history centers around this fruit — the date palm is like an eternal mother that has provided love, life and nourishment for millennia and continues to do so to this day.