Everything it takes to grow the best dates in the world.

To start:

We start with thousands of acres of mature date palms, living in the perfect microclimate — with sandy soil, a dependable water supply and at least 100 days of 100º heat. And all that began with the folks who planted six original date palm offshoots right here in the place we call Bard Valley.

How we grow our Medjool dates.

Our growing season begins in November, right after the harvest. In addition to pounds and pounds of dates, each of our trees has grown extra fronds and plenty of thorns that not only take up valuable nutrients, but make our numerous trips up the tree more hazardous than they need to be.

That means, to maximize the safety of our Palmeros, we use lifts, not ladders to trim and de-thorn each palm, by hand.

Every date palm is pollinated by hand.

Nature has its pollinators — the most famous is the bee. But they are simply too rare in the desert, so this crucial step is performed by hand. That means taking the pollen from the male trees and depositing it, again, by hand, on each female flower.

Thinning gives each fruit some room.

As the pollinated dates begin to grow, they come in thick. Left to their own devices, they’ll create much less of a crop as they compete with each other for food — and room. So our Palmeros painstakingly remove many of the new buds. Don’t worry; they’re making room for something delicious.

Bagging the dates.

Like any ripening fruit, our young Medjool dates ring the dinner bell for hungry birds. So we go up each tree again and bag each cluster. It’s hard; it takes a lot of work, but it’s okay; it’s worth it.

How we harvest our Medjool dates.

It’s September — harvest time. Once more, our Palmeros ride their lifts to the top of each tree and release the clusters of mature dates before gently lowering them to the ground, where many other pairs of hands will sort and package the fruit before it all heads off to be enjoyed by millions of date lovers.

And then, we start again.