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Natural Delights Medjool Summit — Yuma, Arizona

September 21, 2015 by Lisa Le 8 Comments

Big 6

Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited by Natural Delights to visit their date farms in Yuma, Arizona. You might have seen copious updates from my snapchat and instagram. The entire area used to be a riverbed—meaning the soil is rich in nutrients—making it perfect for farming. Flying over Arizona, the landscape reminded me of the way water would trickle through sand on a much larger scale. Vegetation grew naturally where the remaining streams used to be, making it look like veins of green throughout the desert. While we were driving around Yuma, we saw fields upon fields of produce: celery, to lettuce, to cauliflower and broccoli… Yuma is constantly growing food that is shipped all over for the world to enjoy.

But in particular, Arizona has the perfect climate for Medjool dates: sunshine 365 days a year, dry heat, and lots of water from the Colorado River, which means that the date palms are free to happily grow 1-3 feet per year. The older the palm tree, the taller they are. We saw so many adorable short palms bearing fruit, but we were also fortunate to visit the towering Big 6, the original Medjool date palms from Morocco that grew offshoots to populate the rest of the Medjool groves.

IMG_2952

Many people are familiar with Deglet dates—those are the dates you find in Bulk Barn or in packages that grandmothers tended to turn into date squares—but those dates have less moisture and are better suited for chopping and blending. In comparison, Medjool dates are sweeter, more plump, and are perfect for snacking, cooking, and baking.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Medjool dates. Of all the date varieties, they are the juiciest, the most plump, and the most caramel-like dates. Full of potassium, fibre, energy, and more, I always keep a tub of dates in my fridge for a snack, especially when I’m craving something sweet.  I, along with 13 other bloggers, gorged ourselves on fresh dates in nearly every form: date sugar in our coffee; stuffed with peanut butter, coated in chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt; date syrup over our waffles; date sauce over tofu; dates baked into a berry crisp; or roughly torn or chopped in salads…to name a few.

IMG_2945

We definitely learned about the infinite versatility of dates, but moreover, I just learned so many more reasons why I love Natural Delights Medjool dates.

Reason 1: All of Natural Delight Medjool dates are completely grown organically. While only a few groves are USDA Certified Organic, they’re all non-GMO certified and grown without any pesticides. That means even though you’re buying a tub of conventional dates, they’re technically organically grown anyway!

Reason 2: The growers, the retailers, and the production managers are all equally invested in the entire process. They all are so passionate about dates and just want to share their wonderful, sweet fruits with the world. There is so much care taken to the growing, maintenance, harvest, and packing of the dates so that in the end, we get only the most delicious dates possible. They were all so interested in our readers to learn how they can understand why we love dates and how we can get more people to fall in love with dates as much as we did.

Dates straight from the farm to the facility

Sorting Dates by Hand

Reason 3: The dates are all hand-picked, hand-sorted, simply washed, and tested to ensure consistent and quality dates for us to enjoy. There is so much care from start to finish that it’s evident in every bite of what I call nature’s “caramels”. They harvest 3-4 times per year, shaking the bunches of dates and only letting the most ripe fall to the harvest trays.

A video posted by lisa the viet vegan (@thevietvegan) on Sep 18, 2015 at 2:53pm PDT

Reason 4: There is virtually no waste! Any of the not-so-beautiful dates or aesthetically damaged dates that are still perfectly delicious are ground up and turned into the date rolls. The date rolls come in 4 different flavours: coconut, almond, pumpkin spice, and chocolate orange. My favourites are the coconut ones, closely followed by pumpkin spice. I love how simple they are: pitted, spit out through a grinder, rolled in whatever coating (be it almonds, coconut, or pecans). Then they’re cut and packaged. That’s it! And it takes advantage of all of the dates that otherwise would have gone to waste.

Hand sorting

2015-09-15 18.42.03

Reason 5: They invite a fantastic group of bloggers who all share the love of food, health, and dates! I met amazing bloggers that I’ve followed for ages! Kathy Patalsky from Healthy. Happy. Life. and Jasmine from Sweet Simple Vegan are two people I’ve followed for a while, but I loved meeting and getting to know Catherine from Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth, Abby from Abby Langer Nutrition, Joann from Woman in Real Life, Tina from Carrots N Cake, Brooke from Cheeky Kitchen, Brittany from Eating Bird Food, Taylor from Food Faith Fitness (who I actually met last year at BlogHer Food),  Alexis from Hummusapien, Shannon from Lone Star Nutrition, Yvonne from My Halal Kitchen, and Lisa from Snack Girl.

Bloggers By the Big Six Original Date Palms

Reason 6: They made us feel like royalty. They literally thought of absolutely everything. Water bottles to keep us hydrated in the hot Arizona sun, an adorable work-out shirt, a USB cable and adapter for all types of chargers because we’re bloggers and we burn through phone batteries like nobody’s business, and not to mention, vegan food for all of us veg-heads and allergy-friendly stuff for us allergic folk.

It was an incredible trip and I’m armed with a bazillion date-recipe ideas! Stay tuned for some awesome date-y recipes and here’s a video of the lifespan from tree to tub! Be a doll and subscribe to my channel. I have more videos to come =)

Disclosure: Natural Delights paid for the travel, accommodations, and expenses to Yuma, Arizona. This post was not required in exchange for the trip, but I wanted to post it anyway because I learned a lot about dates and I want to share the knowledge! This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own, thank you for reading and supporting The Viet Vegan!

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Filed Under: Vegan City Guides Tagged With: bard valley, date palms, medjool dates, medjool summit, natural delights

About Lisa Le

Lisa is the thirty-something, nerdy, procrastinating, feminist blogger and photographer behind The Viet Vegan. She loves spicy foods, noodles, and food in bowls.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jasmine B says

    September 21, 2015 at 1:51 PM

    I miss you already! These were the best three days, SO MANY DATES lol. Hopefully you come back to the states, or even better, I come up to Canada, and we can hang out in a more lax environment and grub on some quality vegan comfort foods :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      September 22, 2015 at 1:21 PM

      I’m so glad to have met you! I wish you weren’t feeling so sick while you were there! I wish you a speedy recovery =) I hope we get to hang out again soon! Fruitluck is the bestluck =D

      Reply
  2. Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade says

    September 21, 2015 at 2:35 PM

    That is awesome! I am glad you had such a blast, sounds like so much fun. Plus dates for days…omg!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      September 22, 2015 at 1:20 PM

      I know! Dates forever <3<3<3

      Reply
  3. genevieve @ gratitude & greens says

    September 23, 2015 at 11:27 AM

    Yay it sounds like you had so much fun!! I love dates… and am kind of obsessed with them. My favourite way to eat them is slathered with almond butter. SO good!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      September 24, 2015 at 9:13 AM

      Mmmmmmm I love slathering them in nut butter and chocolate with a sprinkle of sea salt <3

      Reply
  4. Joann @ Woman in Real Life says

    September 25, 2015 at 12:07 PM

    It was great to meet you and hang out in person Lisa! What a fun trip. :) Lots of great memories.

    Reply
  5. Lisa Le says

    October 12, 2016 at 9:39 PM

    Hey Faiz,

    I’m not Natural Delights, I’m just a blogger who visited their facility. If you want to contact them about this, try reaching out through their website or on Twitter? http://naturaldelights.ca/

    Reply

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