Dates
Fossil records show that the date palm has been around for about 50 million years. It is so old a species that it is not known where it originated. Archaeology shows it was cultivated 9,000 years ago in what is now Pakistan.
Dates are now grown commercially across North Africa, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and South Asia, and it can also be found in most tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.
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Format Notes
Details
Nutrition
FORMATS
- Whole Pitted
- Chopped
OTHER POINTS TO NOTE
Date palms can be either male or female, with only female plants bearing fruit.
As natural wind pollination cannot be guaranteed, and growers prefer to plant only a minimal numbers of male trees in their orchards, is pollination manually which done often is a skilled job.
Growing from seed means half the palms will be male, so commercial growers generally plant from cuttings. This method also produces a crop a few years earlier than from seed grown palms.
COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN
- Iran
- Pakistan
HARVEST
- October and November
VARIETIES
Phoenix dactylifera contains up to 19 species of wild date palm and is the major source of commercial date production varieties.
Certain cultivars (different date types) that we would recognise for their quality and different flavours are Deglet Noor, Medjool, Saidy, Zahidi and Holwah.
NUTRIENT HIGHLIGHTS
- Very low in saturated fats, with just 1% of the calorific value coming from fats
- Low in Cholesterol and Sodium
- A source of dietary Fibre
- Potassium is a key mineral
- 94% of the calorific value comes from Carbohydrates, over 60% of which is from natural sugars