In season: dates

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FOR SALE

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From local reports

“Buy your own town.” That’s a concept familiar to those in Georgia who remember when Kim Basinger bought the north Georgia town of Braselton in 1989.

In September 1994, Roland Walker and his wife saw a newspaper article about buying a town, this one in the southwest corner of Arizona not far from the Mexico border.

Dateland, Arizona was for sale. It’s the site of World War II training camps and, by the 1990s, home to a date grove, cafe, gift shop, gas station and RV park. Walker was living in Canada and thinking about moving to a warmer climate. With his parents already wintering in Arizona, and a ready-made business for sale, he and his wife made the plunge.

Walker is now the largest employer in Dateland, with employees serving “thousands and thousands of date milkshakes,” he says to the travelers on Interstate 8. The Dateland travel center sells, among other things, date-pecan pie, date bread, date oatmeal squares, date butter, date cookies, date vinegar, date steak sauce and date shake mix, the pureed mixture that is blended with vanilla ice cream to make a date milkshake. “If anybody makes anything with dates, we sell it,” says Walker.

Dates grow best in a very hot climate. The trees need lots of water, but the fruit can’t tolerate rain or humidity. In Dateland, temperatures can easily rise to 110 degrees and average rainfall is less than 3 inches per year, perfect for dates, as long as you have the means to irrigate the trees.

When they purchased Dateland, the 300-acre property had 5 acres of dates with about 300 trees in the grove. Now the Walkers have 14 acres planted with date palms and 1,000 trees. The original trees were a mixture of varieties: Medjool, Halawi, Khadrawy and Thoory among others. The trees the Walkers have added are all Medjools, a meaty date that is the largest date grown in North America.

The Medjools are treated like royalty. There are male trees and female trees, and because there are no birds or other pollinators attracted to the blossoms, each female tree must be pollinated by hand. Workers gather the pollen sheaths from the male trees, process the pollen and then use a small squeeze bottle to pollinate the female trees.

Once the fruit begins to form, workers go back up into the trees to thin each strand, leaving only about a third of the fruit to grow to maturity. A few months later, the strands are covered with muslin bags to protect the dates from birds and insects and to keep the dates from falling to the ground. Only the Medjool dates receive this care. The remaining varieties are left to fend for themselves.

Date palms can grow a foot a year, reaching 70 to 100 feet in height. Some of the trees in Dateland’s original grove date back to the 1940s, Walker says. Those trees are now so tall that the fruit’s out of reach. “We don’t have equipment big enough to get up to them,” Walker says.

When dates are ripe, they’re soft and mushy. If they fall on the sandy soil under the trees, Walker says you just can’t get the sand out of the fruit. So all their dates are harvested directly from the trees. Harvesting begins in late August and goes through the middle of October. The harvested fruit is laid out in the sun for a few days to dry and then packaged for sale. The Walkers ship dates across the country.

Dates will keep just fine on your kitchen counter or in a pantry for a few months, but for long-term storage, refrigerate or freeze them.

Pitting dates for use in cooking or for stuffing with pecans is simple. Just tear the date in half and pop out the pit. “If we get behind in our date pitting, I send some to my mom and she does it while she’s sitting at home watching TV,” said Walker.

As for Dateland itself, the Walkers are getting ready to put the town back on the market. Anyone interested in buying a town in southwest Arizona and becoming a date farmer?

Date Relish and Parmesan on Baguette

Chef Anne Quatrano writes in her cookbook, “Summerland: Recipes for Celebrating with Southern Hospitality” (Rizzoli, $39.95), that the pairing of dates and Parmigiano-Reggiano is a classic combination. With a simple sandwich like this, the quality of the ingredients makes all the difference. It’s worth splurging on the Parmigiano-Reggiano for this dish. And buy the freshest baguette — preferably baked that day — you can find.

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1 large onion, sliced

2 cups chopped pitted dates

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

2 1/2 cups tawny port

Kosher salt

1/4 pound Parmigiano-Reggiano

2 baguettes, cut into 48 slices

Baby arugula, for garnish

Make date relish: In a medium skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until it begins to color, about 5 minutes. Add dates, cumin and coriander and cook 2 minutes. Add port, scraping browned bits from the bottom of skillet. Cook until port is reduced by half. The mixture should be sticky and clear. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Transfer the date mixture to the bowl of a food processor and pulse just until smooth. Add salt to taste. May be made ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

When ready to serve, bring date relish to room temperature. Use a vegetable peeler to shave Parmesan into curls.

Spread date relish on one side of half the baguette slices and top with a few curls of Parmesan. Drizzle with olive oil, top with a sprig or two of arugula and top with a second slice of baguette. Makes: 24

— Adapted from “Summerland: Recipes for Celebrating with Southern Hospitality” by Anne Stiles Quatrano (Rizzoli, $39.95).

Per serving: 141 calories (percent of calories from fat, 21), 4 grams protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 3 grams fat (1 gram saturated), 4 milligrams cholesterol, 204 milligrams sodium.