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Dates!

Recently discovered how beautifully, caramelly wonderfully yummy Medjool dates are. What’s a good price to pay for them in your area? Can you recommend any online sources? And what are “honey dates”? I’ve seen them in recipes but don’t know what they are or if I’d even like them. Thanks for your help!

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Comments

  • devittlesdevittles Raw Newbie

    i’m in nyc and my co-op (4th street co-op) has medjool dates for $6.19/lb. That’s the best price around here.

    i think honey dates are a little smaller and taste more honey like. if you can get good fresh medjool dates, they are sweet and soft enough.

  • Medjool dates are my favorite, they’re so soft and sweet. It’s hard for me to stop snacking on them. I’m in Canada right now and I think they’re usually between 6-7.50/lb.

  • Wow I’m sorry to hear about the prices in the states.. Really I am.. I live in Kurdistan North Iraq, which is really close to the Iran border. Here we can buy a pound of dates for about 2000 dinars (roughly $1.50) and they are the freshest majool dates.. I agree with elizabeth, they are hard to stop snacking on.. Dates are like mini super foods they are excellent for pregnant or breastfeeding women because they are packed with natural folic acid, several vitamins and minerals including ash which is hard to come by. They are also an amazing energy food. I am going to find my links and post them about the value of dates. Just out of curiosity writescopy, where do you live?

  • Here in Wichita at Green Acres they cost $4.37 for about a pound of them. Do you guys keep your refrigerated or just out on the counter? How long do they keep? They are organic with the pit in the middle. Thanks!

  • Hi I have never refrigerated them but that’s a good question. I wonder if freezing them would make them lose nutritional value. I got one small package at whole foods for almost $8.00 – appx 6oz. They weren’t super dried out which made them juicier but a couple of them had black mold in them!

    SO if you can, I’d say refrigerate especially if they are the juicier ones.

  • devittlesdevittles Raw Newbie

    i keep them in a jar at room temperature. they stay soft and plump that way and they are never around long enough to go bad!

  • coconuttycoconutty Raw Newbie

    I never refrigerate mine either. Only if I have a large quantity that I don’t plan on eating within a week… But, uhhhhh, that never happens!!! ;-) I keep mine in a brown paper bag in the pantry and have never had a problem with them going bad or anything.

  • I agree, dates are delicious and hard to stop eating once I’ve started. One of the local health food stores sells dates, but they are pitted, dried out, and often infested with bugs (ewe); thus, I stopped buying them.

    However, last year I ordered some very fresh, sabrocious dates from http://www.sunorganicfarm.com

    I also found the website http://www.rawfromthefarm.com on the forums here a few months ago. They have good descriptions of processing of their foods. However, I’ve not yet purchased anything from there. (Perhaps in winter…)

    I hope those websites are helpful!

    Peace

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    I live in Arizona, and I buy “Fresh Arizona Dates- Black Sphinx” for 5.99/pound. They are grown here in AZ (obviously), so not sure why they cost so much…I get them at New Frontiers.

    I LOVE dates, and usually make a large batch of date syrup once per week in case I need to sweeten something. It is soooo tasty in the raw chai that I make. Yum Yum!

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    They showed on tv how they get the dates. The put a net under the trea and when the dates are rip the wrapped around the branches and shake the tree and they will fall in the net.

    How do you make the syrup spiritedmama?

  • debbietookdebbietook Raw Master

    We have Medjool dates in the UK, and I do love them. They’re like toffees! And so useful for sweetening. But are they raw? I’ve heard some alarming things recently about dates being steamed to plump them, and that if they look smooth and shiny (as Medjools do) they are suspect. Does anyone know?

  • Hi debbietook.. I don’t know about the UK but I’m sure (well almost sure) that they are imports and one of the biggest contries to import is Iran, which is where we get our dates, here in Iraq. The dates we buy are usually plump but that’s because of the way the trees are kept, the time they are picked (actually joesc was more acdurate to say shaken) ours are almost always fairly smooth and shiny (Those are the ones I usually eat and not cook with cause they are sooooo good) I’ve never seen or heard about anyone steaming them. My suggestion is to find out where the dates you’re buying came from.. My suggestion is to trust places like Iran or Saudi which are the two biggest and best places for dates.. They are the most likely to be organic, pesticide-free and picked at the best time with as little hampering as possible… (I’ve even had to wash a few every couple of boxes I get cause they’re a little dirty from just being picked and packed) Hope this helps..! K-Mom

  • Hi it’s me again.. after I posted I remembered that I took a photo of the last box of dates I bought about a week ago (I don’t know why I took the picture… it must have been fate) it’s a little dark but you can see pretty well.

    www.flickr.com/photos/10568534@N03/914005896/

    Is this how your dates look?

    My link doesn’t seem to work.. Maybe Ray can give me some advice.. but you can copy and paste it to get the picture…

  • Hi K-mom,

    wow those dates look amazing. I finally found some natural dates, I got them at a Tunisian store in this town nearbye… They are called Deglet Noor and they aren’t as soft as the medjool dates or the baharis (I remember those from when I lived back in the states) but they are good and above all natural. I made the easiest pie with dates the other day and I thought of you and yr mom in law, since you mentioned she has a sweet tooth. I ground up almond mush, dates and agave nectar (you can sub honey) put few drops of lemon juice. I pressed that into a pie dish and then I blended plums, dates and bananas and a little sweetener poured the pie mixture into the pie crust. I put it in the refrigerator to chill and it was so tasty. Ok my dear, take care, Dea :) blessings xoxo

  • debbietookdebbietook Raw Master

    Hi Kurdish Mom

    Many thanks for the info and picture. Your dates do look like the Medjools in my local supermarket, so feeling a little more confident..!

    Love

    Debbie Took

  • In the US you can order dates by telephone from the Date People: http://www.datepeople.net/

    I ordered from them a couple of times. I have a farmer’s market in the city where I live twice a week and in the season (late August until probably March) there is a date farmer there who has cheaper and better dates than the date people. If you order dates now that are grown in the US they will be last year’s crop which have been in a refrigerator for nearly a year. It is much better to wait a month and get the new crop. The date people dates are not certified organic but they grow them the same way as organic ones, they just claim that it costs too much to get certified (they used to be certified).

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    I’ve been using fresh dates for sweetening for a while now, but I have never really cared for the taste of them plain. Well, I was inspired by you guys to try them out again, and wow, I am so glad I did! They are really delicious. And what a handy nutrient-dense snack! Raw food is so amazing—I can’t believe how much my taste buds have changed in just a few months. Thanks for this reminder to keep trying new/old things, y’all!

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    Joesc, To make date paste/syrup, I just soak dates in water for about 30 min., then blend the dates up with the soak water. I keep mine in a bottle in the refrigerator and use it when I want to use something other than stevia to sweeten a recipe.

  • I just picked up dates at my local Whole Foods – $11.59/lb! That’s outrageous, even for around here.

  • coconuttycoconutty Raw Newbie

    Oh you guys are killin me talkin about dates!!! I’m doing a bit of fasting right now, and boy, I could totally stuff my face with a bunch of dates right now! ha ha! ;-)

  • Lol sorry bout that coconutty.. Good luck with the fasting…

    elizabeth.. where do you live?? 12 bucks for a pound of dates? I hope they had 24 karat gold pits!! Man if we had a postal service here (or atleast one that didn’t take over a month to send anything) I’d be sending everyone fresh dates.. Cause I’m seeing the prices and thinking how lucky I am..

  • KMom, I’m in Canada, but that was the price at just one store. Usually I pay between $6-8/lb, but I was shocked with the price at Whole Foods!

  • I love the Medjool dates I get from Trader Joe’s. I get a nice package for $3.99 last time I checked. Can’t remember the weight, but it is a nice amount….two or three (or ten!) of those at night really crazy that sweet tooth that sometimes kicks in….

  • coconuttycoconutty Raw Newbie

    I don’t buy my dates from trader joe’s anymore, WATCH OUT… the last package I had bought there, half the dates were moldy inside, and one of them had a bug cocoon inside and there were tiny bugs all around it. It was beyond disgusting. So please, check your dates from trader joe’s!!!!!!!!!!! I will never buy their dates again after that!

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    Aaah! Coconutty, that is HORRIBLE! I hope you got your money back! I’ve definitely been infuriated by the quality of Trader Joe’s produce before, but I do appreciate their “no questions asked, no receipt needed” return policy.

    My experiences have been more with moldy berries and such (which is super frustrating, but I can almost forgive it after a refund), but wow, I don’t think I’d be able to buy dates again after that. Sorry you had such a terrible experience! I got a chill up my spine just reading it.

  • Hi- Coconutty that’s nasty! Even frightening! We just had the first Trader Joes open a few months ago here in Atl. My mom goes there.

    I just got some some dates at the local grocery store for about 2.50 for 8oz. Basically because I felt guilty about spending so much the last time at whole foods. Boy I am either spoiled now or they were just bad! They were really hard. Not because they were too dry but they seem to have a hard rubbery interior. Has anyone noticed this kind of thing?

  • Thanks for the heads up about the Trader Joe’s dates!! So disgusting…i will be more vigilant with them for sure with the dates.

  • Writeeternity.. If your dates were kinda rubbery inside then they were old dates.. probably picked over a month before you bought them and kept in the wrong conditions.. which can happen I guess with any store, but I know some are more prone to bad shipping and handling procedures than others. We just bought a box of dates a couple of days ago and half of them were kinda dry and rubbery, when I asked about it they said that they were a little old (exact words were “last month’s dates”) I was a little bummed but I did make a nice goop out of it.. I was trying for date syurp but it didn’t come out that way.. It’s still sweet and I guess will work the same but I think next time (if there is a next time cause I’ll buy more carefully from now on) I’ll just dry them completely and save them for something..

  • Dates are now back in season here in SocaL. I was in Palm Springs over the weekend and I saw the millions of date palms all over the place with the juicy little guys all hanging from them. Time to get ‘em!

  • coconuttycoconutty Raw Newbie

    Great, thanks for the update. I was just wondering when the date season was gonna get here!

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