A date with the palms

Manama

 An absolutely delightful sight while visiting Malkiya or Zallaq during this season would be the date palm trees, with dates cuddled together, as children in mother’s lap.

Thousands of date palms bedeck both the places, with red and yellow dates, embellishing the visual extravaganza.

Dates, probably the oldest fruit in the Arabian land, have started to ripen, and many opine partially ripened dates are the tastiest.

According to Ashraf, who looks after a date palm farm in Malkiya, the dates started ripening about two weeks ago. This visually attractive scene will remain for next one month, he said.

As the temperature has soared, the ripening process will also speed up, he said.

Since the Kingdom is enjoying Eid holidays, many have been visiting these date palms to click the photographs and selfies in these stunning locales. Many also ask partially ripen dates to taste.

Ashraf said a carton of partially ripen dates are sold at BD1. A carton usually contains 10 kg of dates, he said.

But not all the dates are sold in the market as most of the trees produce low-quality fruits. "Only good quality dates are chosen for sale," he said.

“Rest of the dates is left to dry up in the date palm itself until October. Later, all the dry dates will be plucked and used as food for sheep and camels”, he said.