The Padre Identity

Legacy of the Padres

No..not the team, although they are my second favorite club. This is about the padres who first came to our peninsula. And in this particular topic...the DATE PALMS they brought with them. .

I got to thinking about them the other day when Manuel and I were doing the annual palm pruning in my yard. Whew...hate to 'date' myself, but I can remember when these adult palms were about as high as my..well...it was a long time ago.



Some years back, it was a little bare when we first got started..


Living with palms in Baja and overseas, I have tended to take them for granted, wven while knowing the date palm is an important plant worldwide. The date palm ('Nakhla' in arabic) is truly the "tree of life". The early missionary effort in Baja with these Arabian date palms has paid off...kind of.

Dates are easy to store, nutritious, high in sugar content..almost 70%...and are also good sources of iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, copper and phosphorus, along with various vitamins, including thiamine, riboflavin, biotin, folic and ascorbic acid in case you didn't read the label.
Here is one of my palms with an ample load of dates...ready for harvest.

Its use also as a livestock feed supplement gives the tree much added value as anyone knows who has been to the Serinadad Pig Roast or ate the tasty pork carnitas at Antonio y Lorena's.


Some secondary products generated from fruits are syrups, jams, ice creams, baby foods, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, and date bread!



..er..Ever drank date wine? Don't.

Small- and intermediate-scale industries like the date farms of Mulege and San Ignacio can therefore be supported over long term periods in both urban and rural situations. 300 years worth in Mulege is impressive in itself.



As we all know, date palm trees do well in dry and semi-arid regions. The tremendous advantage of the tree is its resilience, its requirement for limited inputs, its long term productivity and its multiple purpose attributes.

I only wish one could run for President in time to save us from our coming debacle.

Did you know that the propagation of date palms is by offshoots? ...axillary buds situated on the base of the trunk during the juvenile life of the palm. We just pruned quite a few of the offshoots away from windows and walls the other day. These offshoots develop slowly and the numbers of these are limited and are produced only within a certain period in the mother palm's life. The low number of transplantable offshoots available in the life time of a selected tree varies from 10 to 30.

For those in the date palm business, no field-based methods are as yet available with which to increase the numbers of offshoots produced by each tree. Offshoots have to be large enough to survive when transplanted in the field, a process of regeneration that can take up to 10 years. Something an old amigo named Benicio taught me a long time ago. This is an offshoot female we managed to successfully move with a few others to a rear patio area.


Ah..now we come to the talk of gender preference. The NOW organization will like this part. Sexual propagation is the most convenient method by which to propagate date palm: seeds can be stored for years, they germinate easily and are available in large numbers. The most obvious feature of these date palms is thier dioecious nature. Half of the progeny are generally male, which produce no fruits, and large variations in phenotype can occur in progeny. Furthermore, no method is known at the present for sexing date palm at an early stage of tree development. It is therefore not possible to eliminate non-productive males.. whoa..easy guys...we're talking male PALM TREES here..whew!..I can see that got the attention of some couch potatos out there in Nomad Land.

The growth and maturation of seedlings is extremely slow. A date palm seedling may take 8 to 10 years or more before fruiting occurs...even in places like San Francisco.
(Damn, gonna get in trouble for that one, right Tony?...sigh)

Date palm breeding is hampered by the long generation cycles of trees. It usually takes more than 30 years to complete three backcrosses and to obtain the first offshoots from an intervarietal cross.

Side benefits of having date palms: The various animals and birds making off with the ripe dates makes for great Audobon Club viewing and photography.



Notice to PETA...please send me a Good Member placard...I just fattened up 100 pack rats.

Notice to the padres: Please come and collect your dates.

VERY interesting! I'm curious...how long did it take you to put this post together? You are one dedicated man, Pompano!

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Originally posted by longlegsinlapaz VERY interesting! I'm curious...how long did it take you to put this post together? You are one dedicated man, Pompano!

longlegsinlapaz..

I get up VERY early and try not too make too much noise...sooooo.....

How much time for this one?...oh, about 40 years more or less.

Nice photos.

I'm a big fan of dates. They made a nice high calorie snack.

Quote:

Originally posted by longlegsinlapaz VERY interesting! I'm curious...how long did it take you to put this post together? You are one dedicated man, Pompano!

Pompano, Thanks for the pictures and all the date palm information.

Pompano,
You've had a very productive 40 years. Beautiful photos too.
Don't know how that "fruiting" anomaly occurrs in San Francisco since the date palms don't do very well there, even with the expanded marriage law.

Something I got out of your expounding is that you can't sex a young offshoot. That was disheartening for us old dudes, just in case one were to see an especially cute female date palm. Not that I am frond of them, but the proliferation of plant progeny on your premises is puzzling.

Good story and pix, Pompano... thank you.
And btw, I'm kinda partial to that date-on-the-ground shot myself - nice color shades and textures.

I recently received by mail 2 large boxes of fresh dates from Blythe CA, courtesy of amigo bbbait. I'm planning to stuff some with cream cheese and orange peel, make bread and candy from the rest.... if I don't first eat 'em all straight up.

Fresh dates are ever so much more tasty than the dried out store-bought ones.

Nena

date data

Thanks all for your comments on my date.

bacquito, I know a few date harvesters in Mulege and will ask them about your thoughts. They may be aware of this already, but you never know. Thanks for the good suggestion.

toneart wrote:
"Something I got out of your expounding is that you can't sex a young offshoot. That was disheartening for us old dudes, just in case one were to see an especially cute female date palm. Not that I am frond of them, but the proliferation of plant progeny on your premises is puzzling."

Tony, I attribute it to good vibes, moonlight, and my charming ways. Of course Zulema does the watering and sings to them...and you know the benefit of music. Shall I ask her if she needs any help?

Igor and Nena, I am very glad you liked that photo. As soon as I walked out there it caught my eye, too. Nice to find those small gifts to your day.

Crusoe..I'll be looking today and tomorrow for one of those beach city date shakes....or..maybe a shaking date.

Vince..We are fortunate that 4 of our bay homes are from the same 'mother tree'. We should sign home 'donor cards'

Ken Bondy...The Minnesota Twins! I've been a loyal Twins fan for a long, long time. (after a brief high school fling with the Cleveland Indians) We came close to a double-win in 1987 when the Minnesota Vikings and the Twins almost took the Super Bowl AND the World's Series. Ah..that would have been justice well served.

diane...I am becoming somewhat of a baker and my date bread is getting better and better. If in the area, stop by and I'll cut you a slice.

Baja Road dates.

While driving up the Baja Road yesterday we encountered a couple of date places:

This DATIL tienda has been at the base of this hill for as long as I can remember.


After fueling at Vizcaino's Pemex we bought a kilo of dates from a pickup next to the entrance. The dates are in the packages right behind this vendor. I love these stops...


30 pesos per kilo package and some even survived all the way here to San Diego..

Roger.

Although the Padres originally planted my Date Palms (not I), I have all the benefits by harvesting the bottoms of my shoes, or using a paint scraper on my floor.

If I could just scrape together an alliteration of Zs, I would line them all up and their total would still not add up to one Zulema. However her image in my head causes me to stutter, and it comes out like.....Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Zu-Zu-Zu-Zul-Zul-Zulema!
If you were to put it to sound, it would be kinda like the build up and then the climax of a sneezzzze.

Just the image of multiple Zulemas, lined up like a row of delectable Date Palms, singing and watering, is enough cause for me to lose ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZs for a week.

Have a safe journey! When you return, take all the contending politicians with you. We are tired of all of them and need a week of peace and quiet before the election.

Sha-kays Datil

The dream lives!

Quote:

Originally posted by Pompano ....The dream lives!

Perhaps the only thing date palms aren't good for is climbing.

Quote:

Originally posted by Natalie Ann Good story and pix, Pompano... thank you. And btw, I'm kinda partial to that date-on-the-ground shot myself - nice color shades and textures. I recently received by mail 2 large boxes of fresh dates from Blythe CA, courtesy of amigo bbbait. I'm planning to stuff some with cream cheese and orange peel, make bread and candy from the rest.... if I don't first eat 'em all straight up. Fresh dates are ever so much more tasty than the dried out store-bought ones. Nena