All About The Date

Category: Exploring Food

It’s Ramazan and if there’s one thing that’s on the breakfast table in every house, it’s dates. So we thought we’ll dig a little deeper to see if we can find some cool things about it.

It’s an ancient fruit

There’s archaeological evidence suggesting that dates are a really ancient fruit. Believed to have originated from the Iraq region, the fruit has been used as local food in the Middle East and North Africa as far back as 7000 years ago.

The fruit helped nomads

Because dates contain a lot of sugar and very little water, they last for a long time, even years if stored properly. And because of this it helped early nomads travel for long durations.

Packed with nutrition

Dates contain the vitamins A, B and D along with an array of minerals. A cup of dates packs in an amazing 400 calories, 48 per cent of daily fibre needs, and therefore is a great energy source.

Cosmetics & carpets

When we think of dates we usually think of just the fruit. But actually the entire date palm is immensely useful. The seeds are used for making soaps and eyeliners. The leaves can be used for making baskets, carpets and trays, and the trunks can be used for making furniture and frames for tents. The fibre is used for making ropes, and filling mattresses and pillows.

Red and Yellow

Although the dates that we eat are dried and hence brown, the colour of the date fruit ranges from bright red to yellow.

Resilient seeds

Date palm seeds can remain dormant for decades until the right light and water conditions can be found.

Needs heat and water

Date palm trees need at least 100 days of 37 degrees Celsius heat and lots of water to produce high quality dates.

200 types around

There are said to be around 200 varieties of dates. And Mejdool is said to be the hardest to grow and hence the most expensive.

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