Upcoming Date Festival to educate community about a Yuma staple

The date palm is not just a tree that provides shade in the hot summer, it is also a vessel for a flowering plant species in the palm family, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit.

It’s not a grape, it’s not a raisin, it’s a date!

Of the many date farms in Yuma, one farm holds the title for the largest.

Imperial Date Gardens is one of several other sponsors of the Yuma Date Festival which will be on January 26 on Main Street.

The festival was created to focus on the date and its historic link to Yuma.

In fact, more Medjool dates are grown in and around Yuma than anywhere else in the USA.

In addition, to live music, food, and drink, the festival will also offer chef demonstrations and date garden tours.

Brandon Owl, safety director for Imperial Date Gardens has worked for his family’s business for 10 years.

“It originated in the 70’s so I was around ever since I was a little kid,” he said.

The Imperial Date Gardens farm has now expanded to have 3,000 acres of date trees.

“It started with one field out here that my grandfather started planting,” Owl said.

There are several different phases to growing and harvesting dates.

“Starting with the maintenance to the pollination of the tree and then working your way into the harvest which is in August and September,” Owl said.

Over the years, Dates have become a hot item in Yuma which Owl attributes to their health factor.

“Dates have gotten progressively more popular here, a lot of it has to do with the nutritional value that has been discovered,” he said.

The farm also ships a large number of their dates out of state.

“Historically we have sent a majority of the dates to South East Asia, Malaysia, China, and most recently a big boom in Australia as well,” Owl said.

The Garden was even a part of the original group to bring the idea of a date festival to the table in its early stages.

The date festival will be a good opportunity to teach the community what dates are and how they are grown.

Imperial Date Gardens will be offering dates to purchase at the festival including chocolate covered dates stuffed with walnuts and pecans.

In addition to whole dates, for sale, a treat that Owl himself highly suggests…

“The Date festival is going to be a good time, a lot of food, snacks of course and date shakes, you are definitely going to have to try one, they are very popular,” Owl said.

Mail and internet orders can be made for Imperial Date Gardens on their website www.imperialdategardens.com