The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and date fun facts. As we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.
We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”
For today’s Did You Know we will look at Date Fun Facts
Date Fun Facts: Phoenix dactylifera (date or date palm) is a flowering plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit.
- Date palms cover 3% of the earths cultivated surface. Four million tons are grown annually.
- The word “date” comes from the Greek word daktylos, meaning finger.
- A date pit almost 2000 years old was recently sprouted by Israeli researchers. An ancient variety thought to be extinct is back.
- The date palm is the national symbol for Israel and Saudi Arabia, representing vitality and growth.
- Very few people are allergic to this fruit.
- Date palm trees need at least 100 days of 100ºF heat and plenty of water to produce the best quality fruit.
- The bulk of US dates are grown in California’s Coachella Valley.
- There are more than 200 varieties of dates. Medjool is the hardest to grow and therefore one of the most expensive to buy.
Key Dates
- September 8th and December 22nd are National Date Nut Bread Day.
Date Fun Facts We May Have Missed
Feel free to let us know about the Date Fun Facts we missed in the comment section or our food truck forum. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify the facts we will give the reader credit in the article.
Reference: Wikipedia facts about Dates
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