Dates are among the prominent local super-foods.
Let's start with a practical proposal: Pick up an organic date. If you can not continue without eating it, that's fine. If you eat it,pick up another one. Dice it into medium cubes (about 6 or 8 pieces), place them in the bottom of a cup. Pour your favorite tea onto them. Allow the tea to cool down to the preferred temperature. Drink the tea. Take a teaspoon, retrieve the cubes from the bottom of the cup and there you have it! A soft, warm and tasty date to finish the tea with, a small pleasure … In the same way, you can do this with strawberries and/or apples. You can also mix. I like this method much more than the "dried fruit teas" that are sold in some of the stores, which are indeed tasty and can be used in the same way, but contain a lot, a lot of sugar. A BIG disadvantage in my opinion.
Even if we decide that we are in favor of equality and against discrimination, including when it comes to fruits and vegetables, and that there is no such thing as a "super" fruitbecause each fruit and vegetable has its own advantage, dates have some very prominent advantages. First of all, they are local. Dates have grown here for hundreds of years, and are highly adapted to the local climate, to our taste buds and to the local cuisine. They are so local that we take them for granted: no one gets excited to see tall date palm trees by the roadside and they do not even take a second look at them. If, for the sake of comparison, we were talking about coconut trees or mangoes, then their situation would be different, as the famous song says. Dates have been around here long enough to enter into the culinary canon of the Jews (the honey from "ארץ זבת חלב ודבש" is probably silan, date honey), the Muslims and the Christians, and as we know, agreement between the three is uncommon.
Even though the date is very sweet, it has mercy on teeth and does not contribute to the income of dental hygienists and dentists. It also does not get its sweetness at the expense of high calories or high fat percentages. It is even considered low-cal and low fat – less than one percent! Dates receive additional bonus points for being rich in fiber and for not having a high glycemic value. We can summarize all this by saying that dates are excellent for anyone who wants to eat small amounts and still feel full, nourished and satisfied. This is because the date contributes to the full feeling over time without making one feel heavy and tired, as is typical after big meals.
If we are looking for more recommendations, then organic dates are full of magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc and potassium, vitamins A andB,all of which are great for good regular maintenance of the body, strengthening the immune system, and contributing to healthy hair and nails and happy skin.
Our Organic dates are from Kibbutz Samar, where they have been working on producing the current crop of dates since last January. We have now received their fresh delivery (come taste it!) and soon they will begin the whole cycle again – collecting the male flowers and pollinating the female flowers, thinning, tying the clusters and then harvesting them.You can see the process here. They do all of this so that we can enjoy fresh and delicious organic dates.
Another small date recipe for the road for those who want to add green shakes into their diet and don't know where to begin.- add them into smoothies. The classic date-banana smoothie can be varied with strawberry or arugula. Both are tasty and your body will thank you.
To health!
Yours,
Maggie and the garden team
Forecast for this week:
Organic vegetable baskets:
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Spinach
Lettuce
Pepper
Spinach
Kohkrabi
Potatoes
Carrot
Celery
Parsley
Large organic vegetable baskets:
Onion
Sweet potato
Coriander
Organic fruit baskets:
Oranges
Clementine
Carambola
Bananas
Large Organic fruit baskets:
Apples
Grapefruit
Carambola
You can choose off course to mix and match your own order in our website.
If you are around, we are now opened on Sundays, from 1PM.
