It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Date Harvest)!

The wait is over! Harvest season has officially wrapped up, and our farmers are completing the final steps of harvesting our ripe, moisture-rich Medjool dates. Our palms, some dating back to the 1940s, continue to produce an impressive 200-250 pounds of fresh dates per tree. Since the harvest window is so short—just about three weeks—our team has been hard at work to ensure the dates are picked at their peak.

To give you a behind-the-scenes look at this year’s harvest, we’re excited to share highlights from our 2024 Harvest Tour in Yuma, Arizona!

This year’s Harvest Tour took place in early September, welcoming guests from across North America and Australia. We kicked things off with an intimate dinner hosted by local Yuma chef Alex Trujillo, where each course—from appetizers to dessert—featured Medjool dates. It was a delicious way to start the event, with guests enjoying unique dishes and cocktails that showcased the versatility of this incredible fruit.

The following day, we ventured into the groves for a hands-on experience with our date palms. The harvest process is one of the most unforgettable parts of the tour, especially for first-time attendees. Standing in the trees and seeing firsthand just how much fruit each palm produces is a truly eye-opening experience. Each tree can grow up to 250 pounds of dates, a fact that’s hard to grasp until you're surrounded by the fruit itself.

After the groves, our guests visited the sorting, grading, and packaging facilities, where they learned how Medjool dates make their journey from the field to grocery store shelves. To round out the day, we celebrated the harvest with our growers at a festive taco dinner, aptly named "Celebrando la Cosecha." The evening was filled with great food, local flavors, and lively conversation about the harvest season.

Fun Facts About Medjool Dates
Here are some fun facts that you may not know about Medjool dates:

• It takes about six years for palm shoots to grow into fruit-bearing trees. That’s quite the investment!
• Our growers hand-pollinate every female palm tree by collecting pollen from the male trees. It’s an intricate process, and each tree is pollinated by hand to ensure a good harvest.
• The mesh bags you see around the date clusters protect the fruit from birds and other critters while allowing the dates to ripen on the tree.
• While there are hundreds of date varieties, the primary types grown in the U.S. are Deglet Noor and Medjool. The Deglet Noor is smaller and chewier, ideal for baking, whereas Medjool dates are more moisture-rich, making them perfect for snacking.
• Date palms can live and grow as long as you let them, adding about a foot or more to their height each year. Shoots at the base of the trees can be cut and replanted to grow new palms—a method our growers use to expand their groves.
• Our growers follow global ethical and sustainable farming practices, ensuring the highest quality standards for Natural Delights Medjool dates.

Want to learn more? Check out this awesome behind-the-scenes video from our friend Cara, who joined us last year!

From Our Team
From all of us at Natural Delights, thank you for supporting our growers! Your continued choice to purchase our Medjool dates not only brings healthy and delicious fruit to your table but also supports thousands of jobs in the Bard Valley. It’s because of you that we get to do what we love every day—growing the best fruit possible and serving communities worldwide.

We can’t wait to welcome you back for next year’s Harvest Tour! Until then, enjoy the sweetness of Medjool dates throughout the year.