Some interesting facts about dates:
- Date palms are either male or female. Only the female palms produce fruit but not without being pollinated by a male date palm. One male palm can pollinate up to 100 female date palms.
- Dates are pollinated manually: either with a wind machine or by a skilled labourer who is climbing up the tree.
- Mature date palms can produce between 70 and 180kg of dates per harvest season.
- Dry or soft dates are more popular in Europe than fresh crunchy dates.
- You can eat them raw as a snack or use them for cooking or baking. Try to stuff your dates with cream cheese, marzipan, almonds or walnuts.
- Dates contain about 80% sugar which makes them a great substitute for industrial sugar.
