Harvesting city date trees

You’ll see this all over Phoenix in the late summer. Photo by Balaram Mahalder.

What’s Up With Wasted Dates?

By Justin Schmid
WanderingJustin.com
Nov 18th, 2011

Excerpt:

The Phoenix area is full of big, beautiful, bountiful date trees. Come the end of summer, they begin to hang heavy with fruit. Before it ripens, though, landscaping crews scurry about. They cut the branches down and toss pounds upon pounds of growing dates into the trash. At grocery stores and farmers markets, these same dates sell for up to $10 a pound.

That’s right: Every date tree that gets pruned is a wasted opportunity … to make money, to even feed some people. Sure, they’re tasty. They’re also a great source of potassium, iron and fiber. Yet they just wind up in the trash.

Read the complete article here.

Also see Arizona State University students pick campus dates here.