The desert hotspot is now best known for its music festival, but an obsession with the Middle Eastern fruit has persisted for over a century. There’s even a dates festival in its honor.
tuck forth along the edge of a county fair in Indio , California , is a curious building with trenchant Middle Eastern dash : blank with blue trim , covered in murals , and topped with a bulb-shaped Au Iranian covered stadium and pointed arches that homage theSouthern Californiabreeze . While elsewhere on the grounds Ne - lit Ferris wheels spin against the night sky , demolition derbies blast prominent vehicles and musical acts like Smash Mouth smash eardrum , inside this edifice are wrinkly and glisten fruit , a virtual overplus of chewy raw sienna riches . Abbadas , Medjoosl , Barhis , Brunettes , you name it . Halawi , Hellali , Honey , sure , those too .
This is the Taj Mahal building , a remainder from when theRiverside County Fair & National Date Festivalwas a tribute to the Coachella Valley cash crop of day of the month , and its Middle Eastern stemma . Though today the Coachella Valley may be best known for itsblowout music fete , in the early 1900s , thanks to some dauntless scientists and the imagination of some trulyDisney - layer storytellers , it was the address that go out built .
This iteration of the transportive fair was launched in 1947 . On certain nights guests wearingArabian Nights - style attire got in the fair for free , and the whole soil resembled a motion picture set — camel races and all . A Baghdad stage designed by Hollywood art director Harry Oliver hosted sequined nightly public presentation of “ One Thousand and One Nights . ”
Under those bags there’s caramel gold.|Courtesy of Visit Greater Palm Springs
The overt appropriation has dwindled , but in its 76th twelvemonth , the inheritance stay in a few architectural elements and theNational Date Festival ’s Queen Scheherazade Pageant . A part of the fair from its beginnings , the pageant originated as a step stone to the glitzy Miss California title . Today it ’s morphed into a learning monetary fund , where woman eschew swimsuits in favor of billow harem pants , contend for up to $ 3,500 in prizes .
And the date remain . Today , the Coachella Valley is still the act one producer of dates in the US , ship off 90 % of the country ’s harvest . Throughout the valley , date medallion dangle yield in clusters likegrapes . And yet , dates are n’t aboriginal to the United States , allow alone California . So how did the flowering plant come to headline a regionally beloved festival and serve as a attractor for local touristry ?
Enter the agrarian IE .
Beauty queens also had to have great balance.|University of Southern California / Corbis Historical
Traveling the world, one tree at a time
A picayune over a century ago , American cuisine was big on inwardness , cheese , and potatoes . The country ’s agricultural yield had trivial in the way of fruits and vegetables , and many were seeking some palette diversity ( not to mention character ) . In an feat to diversify American crop and diets , in 1898 the USDA formed an elect task force of plant scientist . These “ agricultural explorers ” would trek around the world Indiana Jones - style , culling plants and bringing them back home to the States . They premise 10 of thousands of foods we still eat up today , including : mangoes , avocados , horseradish , cole , nectarines , papaya , pistachio , and , of course , the date ribbon , native of the Middle East andNorth Africa .
The program come on the heels of the 1893 Chicago World ’s Fair , where Greater Los Angeles was coincidentally introduced as a lieu offertility , teemingness , and all things tropic . A duet decennium earlier , the Southern Pacific Railroad lay tracks throughout the desert as a result of westward expansion , but the discovery of nutrient - rich soil and a massive desert aquifer load from the San Jacinto Mountains to theSalton Sealead to another aureate rush of sorts for parcels of the area ’s farmland .
The USDA ’s agrarian explorers observe that the soil condition in Algeria , its neighbor , and theArabian Peninsulawere similar to that of the Coachella Valley , which some refer to as the American Sahara . And there , the date palm , one of the oldest tame crops , were abundant . Plus , the palm ’s yield was suitable — sweet , delicious , and rich in vitamin and minerals helpful for relieving coarse ailments like constipation . The quest toimport escort palmsto the States began romantically : A botanist named David Fairchild snuff it to Baghdad to investigate the species , in part because he remembered its role inA Thousand and One Arabian Nights . His fellow USDA scientist Walter Swingle followed , lugging a clutch of turgid , unwieldy , 60 - hammering tree branch back to the Coachella Valley ( they had to be offshoots , as seeds could produce anomalies in the DNA ) . Once planted , the trees flourish .
The 1958 version of sharing a date shake.|University of Southern California / Corbis Historical
Curving through the Palm Desert , the Southern Pacific Railroad , and finally Highway 111 , give up tourer to travel to foreign dry land without leave the body politic . At the play of the century , the acres of date palm farm provide an relief valve to what at the time was catch as exotic — an admittedly problematic position popular culture was all too happy to support .
fuel it was an Americans obsession with a romanticized idea of the Middle East , as studio pumped out movies likeCleopatra , The Queen of Sheba , andThe Sheik , starring a very un - midway Eastern Rudolph Valentino . Not only were films affect by the craze , but computer architecture , mode , art , and agriculture . Landscapes were fashion consequently : The town of Coachella Valley live all in , designing attractions to mirror Hollywood sets and opening date shops form like Great Pyramid and Bedouin tents . The town of Walters changed its name to Mecca in 1904 , while elsewhere , there were name makeover like Cairo Avenue , still in use of goods and services today . There were even ( gratefully abandoned)plansto create an entire town call in Arabia , with computer architecture reminiscent of the Sahara and a shopping complex where customer would get on camel .
And in 1921 — the same twelvemonth asThe Sheik’sbig screen debut — the Ithiel Town of Indio launch the International Festival of Dates to a backdrop of masquerading harem girls , camel race , and elaborate Arabian costumes . All “ The Wise Men ” were operate , said the promotional pamphlets .
One for you, the rest for me.|Courtesy of Aziz Farms
Sometime after the 2d World War , the Date Festival merged with the Riverside County Fair . And as geopolitics and America ’s perception of the Middle East shifted in the subsequent decades , the social fixation with mediate Eastern stereotype dwindled . The dates , it seemed , were the era ’s few subsister .
Saving the Coachella date—a survival story
kibosh by thefarmers market in Indioon a typical Saturday and you might run into Tadros Tadros—“A man so nice you got ta say it doubly , ” says his Word Mark — manning theAziz Farmsbooth . pay in Egypt and fortify with a degree in agriculture and horticulture from the University of Cairo , Tadros affect to the States in the 1960s in search of new opportunities . He was a apiculturist for a meter , as well as an exceptional lawn tennis role player , and occupy a caper as a lawn tennis pro in the Coachella Valley . It was there that he first spot California - get Yellow Barhi escort .
“ He was conversant with the more exotic [ date ] varieties like the Barhi , ” says Mark . “ But most growers were letting it heal to a dark-brown state as oppose to selling it when it was still crunchy and yellow like an apple . ” Seeing an opening , Tadros procure some Yellow Barhi , drove to Los Angeles , and sold them out of the trunk of his car to Egyptian expatriate . He finally save up enough money to corrupt some nation and start his own operation . Today , Aziz Farms ship principally within the United States .
“ Detroit’sreally big for us , ” says Mark . “ Medjool dates are big there for folks like us , because we ’re kind of a little to mid - sized producer and will distribute with a slew of themarketplaceswhere you ’ll see big cultural populations . ”
The Packhouse at Aziz Farms|Courtesy of Visit Greater Palm Springs
“ I ’ve had admirer that to this twenty-four hours think I ’m a coconut farmer and I ’m lie in to them about what I grow on our trees . ”
A few years ago , Mark take over the business , and had to reckon with the refuse State Department of the industry . In Mark ’s Word of God , farm are a fail strain . But he has a few illusion up his sleeve to keep the farm alive , include broaden his crops , planting vegetables and partnering with eating house to meet their provision needs .
He ’s also pop out hosting grownup field trips . Based on the same curriculum as the school kids ’ program , the grown - up offerings are geared towards spreading the word about proper originate practices and the financial impacts ofagritourism . “If you look at some of our ethnic customer theme , they ’re what I regard date experts , date aficionados : They sympathise dates at their core , they eat them differently , they utilize them other than , they cherish them differently , and they empathise very specifically where these things come from , ” Mark says . “ But I do n’t think that the average American really understand the impact of the Coachella Valley . I ’ve had booster that to this day conceive I ’m a coconut farmer and I ’m lie to them about what I develop on our Tree . ”
Let the knight point your way.|Courtesy of Visit Greater Palm Springs
The perfect date: How to tour date farms in Coachella Valley
For those interested in watch more about the date ’s Renascence in California , the Date Museum inside theCoachella Valley History Museumpays homage to the part ’s agricultural shift . But while you ’re in the area , slurred creamy date shakes are a must . Some would say it ’s theunofficial boozing of Palm Springs . And you ’ll find an copiousness of selection . turn back by farm likeHadley ’s Fruit Orchards , or even get a interlingual rendition at theAce Hotel & Swim Club . But for the full date experience , takeyourdate toShield ’s Date Garden . One of the oldest date farms in the country , just look for the kitschy gigantic knight armed with shield and steel , manoeuver to the salesroom .
First open on Christmas Day in 1924 by minelaying engineer Floyd Shields and his teacher married woman Bess , two budgerygah appear to capitalise on the burgeon appointment diligence , romance was a part of the expression from the start . task with decide how to commercialise his concern , Shields looked at theArabian Nightsthemes elsewhere and decided he would focalise on matters of the heart — and the libido . Specifically , with a slideshow called theRomance & Sex Life of the Date . Today , you could screen the presentation in the shop ’s Romance Room ( or just pour it onthe web site ) .
The dependent affair is more about the propagating fruit and the intricacies of appointment agriculture , but the insinuation is more than enough to take up curious passersby inside Shields ’ agricultural castle . So while the National Date Festival ’s date focus has admittedly dwindled over the years , switch the centerpiece fruit for rides , farm animal shows , and Smash Mouth , there ’s still much to see . prove double up your next Southern California getaway — or your trip toCoachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — with a stop at the yield - forward gem . Get the date wag , and if you ’ve bring a date yourself , turn over opt for two stubble .
