When should you pick dates from a date palm and do you have to do any processing of them?

Answer 1

We are having tree cutters come now and cut the heavy branches full of dates off of our date palm. There are so many, I wish I knew how to harvest them too. Shortly I will have access to a huge pile of dates. I think they are set out in the sun to dry, similar to raisins, but I just don't know. I will take a small bunch of them and put them in a dehydrator, and see if that does the trick. It would take forever to harvest even the crop from one vigorous tree that way, but if it works, next year I may set up several dehydrators in the garage, so I will have a decent supply for my own use. If it works, I will edit the answer and add the info.

Answer 2

Approximately one month after pollination, small green fruits begin to appear on the female trees. As they grow during the summer months, the intense heat withdraws the moisture and some of the sugar from them. As the dates ripen, they go from green to either bright yellow or dark red in color (depending on variety) and finally a dark brown at harvest time. While different varieties of dates vary somewhat in their growing seasons, the primary date season in Saudi Arabia runs from March, when the green buds first appear, to the middle of October, when the mature fruits are ready for harvesting.