Coachella Valley’s Date Farms are Doing Sweet Things for the Community

After touring and dining on date farms, you might learn a thing or two about the production of the chewy sweet plump dates. The sweet, locally-grown fruit is often found in restaurants all over Greater Palm Springs, especially in date shakes. Sample for yourself at the annual Palm Desert Food & Wine festival.

We became incredibly curious about this popular treat when our own solo date palm in the front yard began to sprout seeds, then annual date production. We learned this is a rarity as most palms are hand pollinated and our own tree must have been pollinated by a neighboring palm, most likely due to the wind patterns.

During the four day 2024 Palm Desert Food and Wine festival, Hadley Date Gardens and Aziz Farms took us behind the scenes to give us a firsthand look of the sex life of a date, as part of a Celebrity Chef Date Farm Tour and family-style lunch on Aziz Farms.

If you want to indulge in these sweet treats, don’t miss the upcoming Palm Desert Food and Wine Festival from March 20 – 23, 2025.

Sweet Facts about Coachella Valley Dates

Dates have been grown in the Coachella Valley in Southern California for over 120 years, originally from imported seeds and suckers from Baghdad and Algiers, Pakistan and Egypt. The Coachella Valley and surrounding area resembles the climate and terrain of the Middle East.

The date crop cycle begins in January and finishes with a fall harvest. The first job is to clean up the harvest and remove thorns in January and February. In March and April, hand pollination begins when the bloom happens. As men scale up the tall palm trees here in the Coachella Valley, we watch them dust or powder/pollinate the bunches of berries to help the fruit grow. To be commercially successful, hand pollination is necessary.

The plant growth cycle looks like this:

Dethorning, Pollination, Blooming
2. Tie down, Cut off fronds and cover with bag to prevent animals from eating the fruit
3. Grow in 110 degree heat all summer
4. Bag up by end of August, harvest fresh, not dried fruit.

Hired workers in the Coachella Valley are motivated to produce a great crop. Thinning and tying down is part of the job, with tall ladders angled against the giant palm trees. Workers here are not migrant, as they make more if they grow more over time. Most workers make their livelihood off the date industry here. Thanks to the workers, they are often able to produce more dates per palm tree. Labor costs in the Coachella Valley are 10x more than foreign competitors.

At 12 years old, palm trees produce mature crops and can last to about 50 years. In the Middle East, nomads have long relied on this fruit that doesn’t easily rot, often eating a few dates and pecans for breakfast.

Behind the Scenes: Coachella Valley’s Date Farms

Hadley Date Gardens is a family business with around 100 employees. The owner shared that an abundant yield and high quality must be grown in order for workers to be paid. Each crop requires specialized skillsets since it can be dangerous. The owner said, “Safety is always first.” You need dry heat for successful pollination. A few years ago crops were ruined due to rain in late August.

Packhouse and Aziz Farms, located in Thermal, is an educational working farm used for a variety of activities – like farm to table dinners, school programs, and events such as KidChella (a 3-day event attended by 2,500 kids). Run by Mark Tadros and his teacher wife, Nicole, who designs a lot of the curriculum, Mark shared that in their first year, 150 students visited their property and in 2023, Aziz Farms saw over 10,000 children enjoy and connect with the land as part of a field trip series.

Mark’s Egyptian father grew dates for 50 years before he took over Aziz Farms. Not only does his farm produce dates, but they also make date syrup (by pouring hot water over dates then straining) and caramel (the same process without straining) out of dates. No fruit is wasted here as they have a process to make date paste and even specially ship dates that aren’t visually pleasing.

Besides the healthy components of the fruit, the pits can be roasted to make coffee. Dates should be kept in the fridge to preserve freshness, although it depends on the temperature and humidity of the house. Also, Tadros shared that dates can be picked at different stages, as the Arab community buys them bright yellow and crisp like an apple. While Aziz Farms ships to consumers locally, they also ship dates all over the world, as far as Australia. In the past, they have partnered with beverage brands like 818 to make a date syrup cocktail.

Besides their date operation, this working farm educates guests and students about farmers but also engages with many chefs. Since it is a regenerative farm, no fertilizer and sprays are used. Fish on the property eat the bugs and predatory insects like ladybugs eat the bad bugs. They also plant beneficial pollinators. “We don’t till which releases carbons. We keep carbon in the soil and the chopper goes down about inch and chops,” Tadros shares. Two rescued ducks who can’t fly live on the land while Tadros says the peacocks on the land are like guard dogs.

Foodies will delight in learning about the variety of heirloom veggies and rare seeds used at Azziz Farms too as they grow items like White Russian kale, Delfino cilantro, French Breakfast spicy radishes, Flashy Trout Back Romaine lettuce, and calendula. Tadros, a former chef himself, likes to experiment first by planting a row of something. Once he thought he was planting cauliflower and ended up with cabbage. “Grow together, gather together,” is a beautiful motto down on Aziz Farms.