We had a nice long sleep in the decrepit trailer home at Delights Hot Spring Resort.  On the previous evening at the nearby brewery/barbecue, we met a vivacious young woman, Kayla, at a shared table on the patio.  Kayla works as the Field Manager at a date farm (yes, there is such a thing), and when we peppered her with questions, she not only answered them enthusiastically, she retrieved a date sampler package from her car to gift us so we could try them.  She invited us to visit her at the date farm the next day.  She is clearly a date ambassador.

We took her up on the invitation and early the next morning we found the turnoff to “China Ranch”.  It became a descent into badlands with hoodoos and other such features.  The road became gravel, then one lane for a while, but ended at an oasis of green under a canopy of date palms. 

We followed signs to parking at a gift shop and other buildings.  We asked for Kayla and were directed to a building behind the gift shop where we found her in a large room where they process the harvested dates.  This consisted of taking crates of dates that had been shaken from the branches bearing them, putting them on a mechanical shaker to remove sticks and leaves, then onto a moistened belt to deliver them to a line of human sorters that pulled aside the bad ones (into the “goat bucket”) and graded the others.  It all made sense as it was explained, although one of the guys admitted that sometimes they are pulling the few good dates from all the rest.

We explored the farm via trails and access roads into the orchard.  Farming dates is a bit like tending a vineyard.  They put mesh bags around the date branches to keep the birds from eating them.  We saw quail, finches, ravens, chukars, and vultures.  Coyotes also get the low-hanging bags and tear them up to get the fruit!

It is pollination time, and Kayla collects the flowers from the male plants, extracts the pollen and applies to the female plants.  There are over 1300 date palms on the farm, 90% female.  Much tree climbing is involved.  Lifts are also utilized.

Water comes from a spring-fed reservoir along the Amargosa River.  Drip irrigation waters each tree—2-1/2 hours per week during the summer, 1-1/2 over winter.  Coyotes and rabbits are hazards to the drip lines, using them as chew sticks.

The “original orchard” was two rows of palms planted in 1920 from mail order seeds by the wife of the original ranch owner. Date palms are actually grasses not trees and Kayla corrected us each time we referred to them as trees until we got the message. Half male, half female, the original palms are the oldest and tallest in the palm grove. Many of the younger trees are clones from these trees.

We returned from our hike through the orchards and visited the gift shop and bakery, which also crafts their signature “date shake”, and now a “date smoothie”.  We tried them both, each delicious, though for the record, we reached the bottom of the date shake first.

We said goodbye to Kayla and headed back up the canyon road away from the palm oasis.  As an effective ambassador, she provided her contact info in case we had any future date fruit needs.  We will likely be placing orders, and will also recommend visiting the China Ranch date farm to anyone passing by.  It’s a great side trip between soaks at Tecopa Hot Springs.

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