I truly have so much fun exploring and writing about my discoveries for the Gold River Messenger. The stories that begin with just an inquiry about how someone gets started as an entrepreneur or what is the process that brings something delicious to our table is always a stimulating adventure. 

On a recent mini-vacation to Palm Desert I was determined to visit a date farm. Dates are wonderful by themselves and I love to use them many ways including a very easy appetizer. However, I did not know how they got to my plate.  My wish was granted by the Pato’s Dream Date Gardens located in the Coachella Valley. 

Guinea hens announced my arrival at this five acre farm which was fairly obscured by Palm trees.  Douglass and Debbie Adair, have owned and operated this organic farm since 1977. As we walked and talked about date farming, I realized I was meeting with an individual that has a very interesting life. Mr. Adair joined the United Farm Worker’s Union of America in 1965 at 22 years old after graduating from UC Berkeley. His up bring was academia, but his love of the outdoors and the hard physical work of farming brought him to the fields where he picked peaches, plums and grapes. He was beside Gilbert Padilla and Ceasar Chevez during those years of strikes and organizational struggles.  After my visit I could not wait to google him to find out the story and realized I had the good fortune to meet with a man who walks with history.

Douglass purchased the farm with nine palm trees. His intention was to grow grapes, but a friend offered to help him with the date trees and 40 years later “we grow our dates as they were grown in the times of the Bible and Koran”. Dates have a sex life — there are male and female trees and no figs will happen unless the two should engage. The female tree flower must be pollinated by the male tree pollen. On Pato’s farm this is done by a professional Pollinator which climbs the female tree and distributes the pollen by hand. There are spikes on the trees which can make this a very sticky endeavor. The water source is the Colorado River and when irrigation is required, Douglass orders the water and then regulates it between the farmers above and below his property to provide for his trees.   Palm trees are prolific and develop shoots that are cut from the mother tree and then replanted. The clone of the mother Medjool is thought to be the great, great grandchild of a single oasis in Morocco. Because they use no pesticides or artificial chemicals, the Pato dates are completely natural.

 Today, the farm is almost fully populated by date palms. Douglass only sells his dates at farmer’s markets and direct through the mail. Medjools, Halawis, Khala, and Mariana’s are all available at harvest time. It is possible to purchase a frond with dates and have them hang in the kitchen and pluck at will as they become softer over time.  They also sell the tall palm to landscapers that will need a tree of a certain height. They come to the farm, measure the tree for the exact requirement and then dig it up for a future at a resort or home driveway. 

It was great day to not only learn about dates, but to meet Douglass Adair also known as Pato.

Alona’s hobbies are food and delicious times. Contact Alona at: [email protected]