Shield's Date Garden

Today's adventure took us to Shields Date Garden.

From their website (Shields Date Garden, Medjool, Organic and other Dates - Indio, CA): Floyd and Bess Shields came to the California desert in 1924 and started Shields Date Garden, working long and hard to build up their business and educate their customers about date culture. In the beginning, Mr. Shields would give his lecture in the garden. As the popularity of his lecture grew, Mr. Shields incorporated a slide show, then recorded his presentation in conjunction with the slide show so that the show could be run several times a day. Today, the 15-minute film Romance and Sex Life of the Date shows continuously during store hours, where you can still hear Mr. Shields talking about his favorite subject: the Date.

Floyd with the Mother Tree, its daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter.

Floyd was a pioneer in the date business, breeding his own varieties of dates, such as our famous "Blonde" and "Brunette" dates, that are exclusive to Shields Date Garden and grown nowhere else in the entire world. He also invented the Date Crystal®, a blend of dates turned into a dry product that can be used in cooking, on cold cerels and in everyone's favorite: date shakes. Date Crystals® do not need refrigeration and when kept in a moisture-proof container will last for many years— without preservatives.

We still grow the dates without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. There are no preservatives used on the dates--when you buy Shields' dates you are getting a healthful, natural treat that is higher in Potassium than bananas with no fat and no sodium.

Bob watched a few minutes of the movie -- Romance & Sex Life of the Date -- it is NOT as exciting as you might think!

We did share a date shake at the old-time soda fountain. There was only one size shake --pretty big -- it was good but very sweet.