Iyad Al-Alami

Mother Earth Organics

Hi, my name is Iyad Al-Alami and together with a great team, we grow organic Bahri and Medjool dates here in Jordan for Nature and More. Thank you for your support.

Our farm is located in the Jordan Valley not far from the Jordan River, Baptism site and the Dead Sea. The whole area is rich in history going back to the beginning of time. It is a mysterious and magical place.

Because of my love and admiration for the palm tree and especially dates, I planted date palms back in 2005. It always intrigued me how such a sweet, tasty and nutritious fruit can come from such a barren place like the dessert. The date palm is a blessed tree. The fruit has countless nutritional benefits enabling the Bedouin nomad to live almost entirely off the date if necessary.

Today, we specialize in growing organic dates, mostly Barhi and Medjool with some other date varieties as well. Each date has a unique taste and texture which changes as the fruit ripens. The date is truly a remarkable and versatile fruit. Dates contain many vitamins, minerals and trace elements that are essential and important for the human body and act as anti-fungi, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-cancer agent. The benefits of dates are numerous for people young and old. It is truly a magical super fruit, a Tree Of Life.

Interview with Iyad Al-Alami

What makes your company so unique ?
"We are a very small scale farm and go to great lengths to care for the soil as well as each palm tree to produce the best tasting organic dates."

Why and when did you go organic?
"I believe organic is about giving to the land so that it can give back to you, it is about building a better, healthier soil year on year. It is about understanding nature and maintaining the balance that exists within the wonder of nature. That is something our forefathers understood very well. Going organic was about going back to the basics and believing these principles are the cornerstone of a healthy and sustainable life."

What hurdles did you have to overcome when you switched to organic production
"The biggest hurdle was explaining to and motivating the workers to understand the importance of organic farming. It was important to get them to connect with the land and palm trees and to trust that growing organically was the right way to go."

What do you see as the benefits of organic farming now?
"A healthier soil and palm tree, diversity on the land, a healthy, organic and chemical free fruit."

What do you like most about your work?
"It gives me a great sense of satisfaction to know that I am growing an organic great tasting date and introducing it to people that may not know it very well and that I am helping people stay healthy."

Is there something that every consumer should know about you or your farm?
"That there is a long story of love, hard work, dedication and care that has gone into growing our organic dates. I hope you enjoy them and I wish you a healthy life."

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soil

We are a very small scale farm and go to great lengths to care for the soil as well as each palm tree to produce the best tasting date that is organic. To feed the soil we make compost on our farm from all the organic by- product material and add this to the palm trees.

I believe organic is about giving to the land so that it can give back to you, it is about building a better, healthier soil year on year. It is about understanding nature and maintaining the balance that exists within the wonder of nature. That is something our forefathers understood very well. Going organic was about going back to the basics and believing these principles are the cornerstone of a healthy and sustainable life.

biodiversity

Local beekeepers ask for permission to place their bee hives in the farm during the fall-spring-winter months. Intercropping of vegetables is done in the fall-spring-winter months to establish plant and insect diversity. Wild plants are left to proliferate in the fall-spring-winter months to encourage wildlife and insect presence and diversity. Local fauna such as porcupine, dessert jackal and fox are often seen in the farm.

When growing dates, one has to have patience as it takes a date palm almost 7 years to start producing. Only the female tree produces a fruit and I feel each tree is like a daughter that I have raised from childhood to maturity. Wild plants are left to proliferate in the fall-spring-winter months to encourage wildlife and insect presence and diversity. Local fauna such as porcupine, dessert jackal and fox are often seen in the farm.

society

Our employees harvest the dates by hand. Individual Bahri bunches are cut and loaded onto a tractor that takes them to the sorting area where they are packed. We have created a safe, clean and healthy living and working environment for the workers with fair wages and benefits.

We encourage the use of local women for temporary work to help empower the rural female worker in the Jordan Valley. Permanent workers are Arab nationals from Jordan, Egypt and Yemen.

climate

Organic date trees rely on mother nature and healthy soil for their energy inputs. In conventional farming, there are also indirect energy inputs that come from the manufacture and transport of fertilizers (specifically nitrogen) and pesticides. Since we farm organically and therefore do not use chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other agro chemicals, it comes as no surprise that these fruits are considerably more energy efficient than their non organic counterparts. We do however use energy for cooling, packing and irrigation . The air freight from Jordan to Europe does consume a lot of energy but our goal is to build the market so that in the future we can sea freight.

The CO2 emissions from our date farm is limited since we rely on the sun, the water from the Jordan Valley Authority and the healthy, compost enriched soil. The air freight from Jordan to Europe does have a large CO2 footprint but our goal is to build the market so that in the future we can sea freight with a much lower carbon footprint impact.

water

Although palm trees do very well in the dessert, they do need water. The water comes from the Jordan Valley Water Authority which has an extensive network servicing farmers in the Jordan Valley.

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