Touring a California Date Farm: A Delicious Time With “The Real Sam Cobb”

Sam Cobb is holding court under a canopy of magnificent palm trees, regaling the fifteen of us who have signed on for his date farm tour with stories about life as a California date farmer. Passionate, delightful and incredibly entertaining, he’s the science teacher you wish you’d had in high school, the one who can make even the tiniest seed an interesting study.

The farm is spread across five acres in Desert Hot Springs, about a 20-minute drive from Palm Springs, and there are another 60 planted acres a hundred miles east in the town of Blythe. Desert Hot Springs is part of the Coachella Valley, producer of over 90 percent of the U.S. date supply. Sam’s wife Maxine welcomes us, offering water as she sets up a table with displays of the farm’s dates. She directs us to benches nestled among the date palms, where Sam begins the first part of the tour.

Referring to himself as “The Real Sam Cobb,” he tells us that he always dreamed of becoming a farmer and earned a degree in Agricultural Education from Fresno State University. After college, he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services, gaining experience, falling in love with the date farming industry and saving enough money to buy some land. He planted the original trees himself and now produces seven varieties that include Medjool, Barhi, Safari and his own signature creation called Black Gold.

“Black Gold is so good. There are two textures and three flavors. You can taste caramel, a hint of chocolate plus a taste no one can identify.”

Date Farming 101

Date farming, Sam explains, requires a tremendous amount of patience. It takes 21 years for a date plant to mature. A tree will begin to “green up” from fertilizer to green growth in three weeks. Greenery that grows around the bases becomes a “carbon copy shoot” that must remain with its tree for seven years before being removed and planted.

A date palm blooms after 14 years, and about half are male and half are female. Dates only grow on female date palms. Males produce pollen, which is used to produce dates on the female trees. Sam describes the pollination process:

“The males bloom first. We shake the pollen from the flowers into a basket. Three weeks later, the female palms bloom, and we fill a bottle with pollen and give each female flower a puff of pollen. Heat, cold, rain, and wind affect the flowers and determine if there’s a good crop.”

Fresh Off the Date Palm

Next we head to another part of the grove, where Sam explains the harvesting process. In August, he says, the dates turn yellow. Sam and his crew cover the flowers with bags to protect them from insects. Around the first day of fall in late September, the dates are brown and ready to pick.

Sam pulls a bag of his prized Black Gold Dates from the back of a nearby truck and offers samples to our group. I’m surprised by how large the dates are and how flavorful they taste, just as Sam had described.

As we are tasting the Black Gold, a film crew joins our group. Sam and several other date farmers in the Coachella Valley are being interviewed for a film being produced for a new date museum in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s leading date producers.

This section of Sam’s date palm grove is especially beautiful, and he has a spot picked out for the perfect “Kodak moment.” Sam offers to take photos of anyone who wishes and then joins each group for another photo. “I’ve always loved photography,” he says, and he clearly understands how much visitors appreciate leaving with a souvenir beyond the usual selfie.

A Date Tasting

A tasting table is set up at the end of one of the rows of palms, with four varieties of dates to try – Medjool, Bahri, Safari, and Black Gold not pulled directly from the tree, as we’d previously tasted. It’s fun to compare them, and Herb and I agree that Black Gold is our favorite. Before we leave, we decide to pick up three varieties for our family’s upcoming visit, turning pre-dinner appetizers into a date tasting.

Sam explains that dates can be kept in the freezer for one year. Dates never go bad, he says, but they will take on the odor of whatever they’re next to. “It’s not a good idea to store them beside onions,” he says with a laugh.

You can find Sam’s dates in grocery stores, but you won’t know whether or not they are from his farm. The processor who purchases them puts his own brand name on the label before selling the dates to various retail outlets. Sam says he keeps the very best dates for sale at the farm and on his website, packaged with his own label and slogan, “We Grow Good Dates.”

Then he breaks into a broad smile as he tells us, “I only sell dates that I like.”