We're harvesting!

[Kate in Arabia]

The dates on our date palm are finally ripe. I like them at this stage, brown and so soft you could spread them with a knife like soft butter. But dh likes them dried, when they get slightly wrinkly and chewier. So I'm debating if I should just keep taking ones for myself periodically or cut of bunches and dry half, or, or... there are lots of date palms in public areas here and most are ready for harvesting -- there was actually an article in the paper last week reminding people that while they are welcome to take a few dates from the trees along the roads, they should have the courtesy not to steal entire bunches, lol.

Also our almond tree is dropping its fruit, so yesterday afternoon the kids went out to gather up as much as they could. I was able to get at the almonds with a hammer, but was left with chopped almonds, lol, so I need to research that a bit more. They look different than the common US variety -- they are a fuzzy dark purple fruit, if you eat the outer flesh before it hardens it is tangy sweet. Reminds me of apricots. But I can't help wondering how anyone ever discovered almonds, and isn't it a lot of work to go through for such a tiny result? We gathered a small box of fruit, I'd guestimate about 50 pieces -- that's only 50 almonds. Maybe the nutrtional value in almonds is proportional to the effort it takes to get one, lol.

[JFS in IL]

I suspect you are the only WTMer harvesting dates!!!!!!!! ;)

[Tammyla]

What a harvest. Yummy~

[Mamagistra]

:drool: Kate, those dates sound incredible.

[sleepy]

Ooooh, dates and almonds... yum!

[Jennifer3141]

That sounds amazing!! You make my tomatoes seem slightly sad now. :D

Jen

[Elisabeth in IL]

Yummy! I bet fresh ones taste so much better then the ones we buy in the stores.

[Crissy]

Yum!
What a treasure you have there, Kate.

I'd love to know more about your almonds. I'm sure we don't have anything like it here.

[shalom22]

Yummy, take the dates and the chopped almonds and mix together and then make date nut drops. Oh, so good!

[Kate in Arabia]

I'm not sure which variety we have (there are hundreds), but they are a lot smaller than anything I've seen available commercially. They still taste good, lol, even though our gardener said they are of a lesser quality (some dates are actually quite expensive to buy).

We were quite fortunate that the man living here before us was an avid gardener. We have four date palm trees, and luckily for us two flowered this year so I know we have at least one male and one female tree (date palms are dioecious). We also have two almond trees, again important because almond trees can't self-pollinate they need a partner, lol. We also have several bee hives on the property, they keep abandoning one hive and starting another somewhere else nearby; several gardener-types have talked about gathering honey, but we never seem to look at the right time or maybe we don't know what to look for, and honestly I don't want to drive them away since they are fulfilling an important function here.

Our gardener also said one of our big trees was a henna tree, although I haven't tried using the leaves or anything; and we have a laurel tree (bay leaf) but again I haven't tried using the leaves; the gardener also brought us a shrub kinda plant that smells a lot like basil but I didn't think basil grew like that.

Since moving we ourselves have planted a few fruit trees, like banana, we'll see if they "take".

I really enjoy our garden but it is this bizarre hodgepodge of trees and shrubs. The man before us lived here for some 10 years, and I think he invested a lot of money in this garden, but sadly I feel like it is somewhat crowded and overgrown.. but as a renter, I don't really have the heart to do major overhauling. So I'll just enjoy the fruits of his investment, wish I could send him some...