California date board expects similar crop size to last year
California date board expects similar crop size to last year
The 2005-06 date harvest in California's Coachella Valley is expected to be in the range of 22 million to 24 million pounds, according to Lorrie Cooper, manager of the California Date Administrative Committee, which represents about 80 percent of the dates grown.
That is about the same volume as the last two years but only about half of the record 52 million-pound harvest in 1992-93.
The harvest, which was already underway for some early varieties and would begin in earnest in October for the major Deglet Noor variety, will continue until sometime in December or early January.
"Right now they are probably running a week to 10 days behind, basically due to the weather conditions from this past summer," which started off unseasonably cool and then became unseasonably hot and humid, she said.
Dates, which can be held in cold storage for more than 12 months, are available 365 days a year.
About 60 percent of the date crop each year is sold at retail in whole pitted form, Ms. Cooper said, adding that most of the remaining 40 percent goes to industrial ingredient markets.
The Deglet Noor crop is, on average, about 95 percent of the total crop, Ms. Cooper said. The Halawy, Khadraw and Zahidi varieties constitute about 2 percent, and Medjools account for the remaining 3 percent.
The marketing order under which the committee operates covers Riverside County only and does not include the Medjool variety of dates.
As of mid-September, we are only about one-third of the way through the Medjool harvest, which will continue for about another month, said Albert Keck, chairman of the committee. Deglets were still probably about a month away from harvest which he expected to be earlier than last year.
As part of its program to promote dates, the administrative committee each year sponsors a chefs recipe competition, which is a blending of tourism, hospitality and food here in the valley, Ms. Cooper said. The fifth annual competition was held last April at La Quinta Hotel & Resort. We had about 50 submissions of recipes from professional chefs and narrowed the field down to 15 participants, including chefs from as far away as Hawaii and New York. We are starting to get national recognition now, she said.
The 15 finalists recipes are judged by a panel that includes food writers and other food professionals, she said. After the professional judging session, members of the public who have paid about $25 a ticket to attend are allowed to taste all of the foods from the 15 finalists and vote for a peoples choice award.
Recipes from the event are posted on the organizations web site, and we create recipe cards, she said. We get a lot of press out of it. There are a lot of articles that are written about the event.
(A full report on dates, nuts and dried fruits appears in the Sept. 26 issue of The Produce News.)
That is about the same volume as the last two years but only about half of the record 52 million-pound harvest in 1992-93.
The harvest, which was already underway for some early varieties and would begin in earnest in October for the major Deglet Noor variety, will continue until sometime in December or early January.
"Right now they are probably running a week to 10 days behind, basically due to the weather conditions from this past summer," which started off unseasonably cool and then became unseasonably hot and humid, she said.
Dates, which can be held in cold storage for more than 12 months, are available 365 days a year.
About 60 percent of the date crop each year is sold at retail in whole pitted form, Ms. Cooper said, adding that most of the remaining 40 percent goes to industrial ingredient markets.
The Deglet Noor crop is, on average, about 95 percent of the total crop, Ms. Cooper said. The Halawy, Khadraw and Zahidi varieties constitute about 2 percent, and Medjools account for the remaining 3 percent.
The marketing order under which the committee operates covers Riverside County only and does not include the Medjool variety of dates.
As of mid-September, we are only about one-third of the way through the Medjool harvest, which will continue for about another month, said Albert Keck, chairman of the committee. Deglets were still probably about a month away from harvest which he expected to be earlier than last year.
As part of its program to promote dates, the administrative committee each year sponsors a chefs recipe competition, which is a blending of tourism, hospitality and food here in the valley, Ms. Cooper said. The fifth annual competition was held last April at La Quinta Hotel & Resort. We had about 50 submissions of recipes from professional chefs and narrowed the field down to 15 participants, including chefs from as far away as Hawaii and New York. We are starting to get national recognition now, she said.
The 15 finalists recipes are judged by a panel that includes food writers and other food professionals, she said. After the professional judging session, members of the public who have paid about $25 a ticket to attend are allowed to taste all of the foods from the 15 finalists and vote for a peoples choice award.
Recipes from the event are posted on the organizations web site, and we create recipe cards, she said. We get a lot of press out of it. There are a lot of articles that are written about the event.
(A full report on dates, nuts and dried fruits appears in the Sept. 26 issue of The Produce News.)
