Monday, August 31, 2009

date dance



We had a wonderful weekend visiting our friends who own a date farm. The dates are ripe and we wanted to be able to help with the harvest.


While our friends who came with us worked in the honey house warming and straining the honey comb we brought.....



Jay went up in the scissor lift and picked dates out of the trees....

and I learned the rules of date sorting...


After gathering a group of dates that were similar in their ripeness I put them in a wet towel, folded the towel into a long tube, and held up one end of the towel at a time allowing the dates to roll back and forth inside the towel to remove anything that might be stuck to them.


Dianne taught me everything I know about sorting and cleaning dates. We enjoyed getting to know one another as we worked.

The trays of sorted fruit were placed in the screened in porch to dry...


before being sealed in glass jars.


After a long hot morning of sorting dates I enjoyed cooling off in pool.

2 comments:

Amy said...

How does sorting dates compare with sorting blueberries? How long is the season?

Carolyn said...

Sorting dates is different as you have to handle and make a decision about each date. The harvest season is about 2 months give or take a week or so. Taste testing is yummy but not as tempting and multiple handfuls of blueberries.