Ask Professor Produce

I was shopping for a friend recently who listed "dried dates" on her shopping list and a staff member showed me your date selection. If the dates you sell are dried, what is a fresh date?

To answer this question, let's first forget the terms "fresh" and "dry," those are for fruits that are juicy and succulent when ripe. It's easier to speak of dates in terms of ripe and unripe, although even that can be kind of confusing when different varieties are concerned. Essentially, a ripe date is a soft and dried date, but this is still considered "fresh." A fruit that is ripe and ready to eat when picked is fresh, after all, is it not? So, you can call a ripened date a fresh and dried fruit.

In fact, officially, dates are dually categorized as fresh and dried. Dates considered as a fresh fruit rank number 5 in the production list of tropical and sub-tropical fruits after citrus, mangoes, bananas and pineapples. As a dried fruit, dates easily top the popularity list over raisins, figs and prunes. Although California produces all the organic dates we carry at the Wedge, they are but a tiny fraction of the date production market. About 85-90% of the world's dates are grown by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Dates, they love the desert! To me it makes some desert sense that a fruit would be fresh and dried at the same time, because the heat and the sun make succulence a bit of a challenge, don't they?

Dates unlike most other fruits go through four ripening stages, which are known by their Arabic names: kimri, green, hard, and bitter; khalal, full size and crunchy; rutab, semi-ripe and softening; and tamr, ripe and sun-dried. Barhi dates (a particularly sweet and soft-when-ripe variety) can be eaten in the khalal stage when they are unripe, crunchy and sweet. Any other variety will be so full of tannins as to render it absolutely inedible. They are also highly perishable, and thus rarely found this far away from a date growing climate. Once again, a fresh date is a ripe date, and this happens when all the tannins convert to sugar, which is what happens as the moisture dries out and renders the date smooshy, soft and dry, as in juiceless. And sweet! Oh glorious special sugar from antiquity, dates are the oldest kind of candy there is.

How mysterious and glamorous the ripe date is despite (because of?) its difficulty to categorize. Your produce department carries a selection of dates to rival any market in town. We carry the fancy, luscious and rich Medjool (a moist date with a fruity caramel flavor), the melt-in-your-mouth Barhi (a nutty caramel flavored date), the drier, versatile Deglett Noor (a fruity, less sweet date), traditional Halawi dates, drier and fruitier Dayri dates, and Zahidi dates which nicely accompany savory dishes such as those containing roast meats. We also carry several types of rolled dates, made by blending a variety of pitted dates together and then forming them into logs which are then rolled in pecans, peanuts, almonds, or coconut. These provide quick energy and a healthier alternative to candy bars, when you are trying to break a bad habit or develop a new good one. Fiber rich, dates are considered healthy despite their high sugar content. They are full of potassium, calcium, iron, folate, and are a decent source of vitamins A, B-1, B-2 and Niacin. This makes them a thankful discovery for anyone with a sweet tooth who is trying to clean up their diet.

For all holiday baking and parties, dates outperform most other midwinter fruits, if only because they walk a marvelous line between exotic (as in a party tray of marzipan stuffed Medjool appetizers), and familiar (as in a potluck pan of oatmeal date bars). Harvested between September and December, the absolute freshest dates of the year are available at your produce department right now... even if they look... dried.

Easy Holiday Stuffed Date Ideas:

With a sharp knife, slice open fancy Medjool dates lengthwise and remove pits. Stuff the date with any of the following:

Peanut butter, cream cheese (plain or spiked with orange zest, walnuts, or almonds), marzipan or candy fondant.

If you'd prefer a savory date, they can be stuffed with cooked chorizo sausage or crumbled gorgonzola cheese. These can be heated in a 350 degrees F degree oven until hot, 5-8 minutes.

Do you have a question for Professor Produce? Please write me at professorproduce@wedge.coop. Not all questions submitted will receive response.