Move Over, Nutella

Meet Datella, an invention of some chocolate lovers living in Egypt. Wanting a natural product without additional sugar so they mixed date syrup, dates, cocoa powder and a bit of oil.

All Packed And Ready To Go

One of the aesthetically pleasing aspects of the date industry in Egypt is the way that the farmers mostly  utilise the products of the palm to harvest and ship the fruit. The boxes are made of the ribs of the palm fronds, the mats on which they are dried are made of the leafy portion of the fronds, the ropes that the pickers use are made of the fiber found at the base of the frond.

The Last of The Harvest

On October 1 I rode to Dahshur with a visitor to Egypt and at our lunch stop they were drying the last dates of this year's harvest. Generally the harvest continues through at least part of October, but this year's heat accelerated the ripening and everything finished much faster. It also spoiled some of the date crop as well. I haven't heard how well the sales of dates have done this year but the mango sales were down, primarily due to people not having money to buy them.

Feather Dusters

Palms are a member of the grass family and not real trees as such. Whatever they are they have so many wonderful aspects: entirely edible, producing wonderful food, and easy to grow. They also can look like a tidal pool of grey-green sea creatures from a hilltop or a plantation of enormous feather dusters.

From Red To Brown

Our dates are being harvested early this year and a neighbour sent us probably about 10 kg of lovely Zaghloul dates still on the branches. We picked them off, put them into bags and have filled an entire fridge with them. Right now most of them are a deep dark wine red, but even in the cold, they will gradually darken, soften, and ferment....becoming the dates that people outside of the Middle East are more accustomed to.

Brushing Things Aside

It isn't easy to keep things clean when you live in the middle of the world's biggest sandbox. We are surrounded by desert in Cairo and it blows in with every breeze. We have the normal plastic brooms, but also make some interesting local ones. These are garden brooms made from the stems of the dates that are harvested every fall.

Climbing

Palm trees are more work than houses. The fronds get trimmed a couple or three times a year, the blossoms must be fertilised, the fruit protected and then picked...and all of this is taking place about 10 to 15 metres off the ground. What's a guy to do? Climb! The harness is made of palm rope and cotton rope and it enables the workers to scamper up the trunk and then, in this case, work away with an axe to chop off the extra fronds and remove the extra fiber. Fronds will be come mats, boxes and furniture while the fiber is woven into ropes.

Crows Stopping By For Lunch

As the dates ripen and fall during the harvest, the crows gather after the workers have gone to eat the sweet fruit lying on the ground.