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I’ve got a date

Does anyone know about dates?

No, no, the fruit.

Yes I know I could google it, or look it up on wiki, but I’d so much prefer it if one of you would tell me (or look it up for me) instead.

Here is what is worrying me. Are they dried fruit, like prunes and whatnot, or do they grow like that all brown and squashy and weird? If they are dried, what do they look like beforehand and why don’t you ever see them for sale? Are they bletted, perhaps (there’s a word I have always wanted to use and never previously found the occasion for)?

I bought some at the farm shop yesterday. Very Christmassy. The girls thought they were nasty (T threw hers on the floor with some force, M tried to wipe her tongue) – which surprised me, as they are very sweet. I ate mine, though not with enormous relish. One is nice: two, unnecessary.

8 Responses to “I’ve got a date”

  1. Claire P
    December 6th, 2007 13:13
    1

    Didn’t we eat dates straight from the tree in Turkey when we went horse-riding?

  2. Kitchen Witch
    December 6th, 2007 14:20
    2

    I could eat dates until the cows come home. Oh yes. And I can recommend sticking them in with cooking apples, walnuts, a spot of self-raising flour, an egg and some brown sugar for a sort of sticky-datey-pudding thing.

    *slaver*

  3. Miss L
    December 6th, 2007 18:58
    3

    Oooh dates are delicious – sweet and squidgy! Even better when stuffed with almond paste.

    They grow on palm like trees and look like huge bunches of yellow grapes.
    Bletted is a lovely word, but I think it means to let things rot, as with medlars. They have to be slightly softened before you make jelly with them.

  4. Lisa
    December 6th, 2007 19:33
    4

    Claire: did we? I don’t remember that at all – just being unable to walk for days if not weeks afterward!
    KW: let yourself down there with a mention of the devil’s nut. Date puddings are definitely yummy though (but do you make them with fresh dates or do you buy something different?)
    Miss L: Excellent information thank you. And can you just pick ’em and eat ’em or does one let them “blet” first? (Yes, that is exactly what it means, and you can surely see why I imagine dates might be slightly that way inclined)

  5. Kitchen Witch
    December 7th, 2007 15:17
    5

    ‘The devil’s nut’, eh? Tremendous. 🙂 I use dried dates for the pudden; have never encountered them fresh. But they must be out there somewhere in a non-bastardised form, right?

  6. Lisa
    December 7th, 2007 19:53
    6

    KW: See? You don’t know if they are dried or that is just how they come, either. It’s not just me!
    I bought some off the fresh fruit section at my local farm shop and they were identical to those you get in little boxes with plastic forks. Hence this whole post…

  7. Claire P
    December 13th, 2007 14:48
    7

    Found this…..
    http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-date-fruit.htm

    The date fruit grows in heavy clusters suspended under the leaves, and they are yellow in the early ripening stage, or kimri, the Arabic word for unripe. Some consumers enjoy date fruit in the next stage, khalal, meaning full sized but crunchy, while others wait for dates to reach rutab, ripe and soft. When the date fruit is allowed to sun dry on the tree, it is considered to be in the final tamr stage of ripening.

    Any clearer?

  8. Lisa
    December 18th, 2007 21:36
    8

    Thanks Claire! Good research. So the ones at my veg shop are tamr. Yum.

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