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5 Delightful and Surprising Fun Facts About Dates You Need to Know

illustration of dates
Get ready to be dazzled by the mesmerizing world of dates, as we unravel surprising tidbits of information that'll make you adore these sweet treats even more!

1. Ancient Palms: Zombie Edition

Whoever said old palms never die, they just fade away, clearly never met the Judean date palms: Resurrected from seeds aged 1,800 to 2,400 years old, these gnarly retirees are living proof that ancient farmers were no slouches in the horticulture game, with a genetic makeup showing a diversity of exotic varieties gathered from far-flung destinations like Arabia, Babylon, and North Africa.
Source => haaretz.com

2. Treehouses: Date Farmers' Penthouses

Why did the date farmer build a treehouse? To keep up with the high life, of course: Date palm trees can grow up to 75 feet tall, forcing harvesters to either shimmy up the trunks like a dubious pole dancer or rely on electronic tree lifts, all while battling fruit-pecking birds to collect the ripe, soft, brown, and slightly wrinkled fruits.
Source => wikihow.com

3. Dates: Bee-less Romance

Why did the bee skip the date? Because there was no buzz-worthy romance to be found: Dates grow on separate male and female trees, relying solely on human intervention for pollination since bees and birds aren't interested in their flowers.
Source => dateland.com

4. Wind-Pollinated Matchmaking

You know how some people say they met their date thanks to the wind? Well, it turns out that date palms would say the same if they could: In nature, date palms are wind-pollinated, but commercial production has taken a more hands-on approach, manually pollinating pollen from male trees to female flowers, boasting a fruitful success rate of 60% to 80%.
Source => journals.ashs.org

Date Pits: Goat Treats

5. Date Pits: Goat Treats

No kidding, they've got our goats hooked: Date pits can be used as a cost-effective substitute for concentrate feed in lactating goats' diets, with no negative impact on their milk production.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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