What you need to know when buying Organic Medjool (Medjool) Dates
What are Medjool Dates?
Medjool dates are the fruits of the “Phoenix dactylifera” which is the date palm tree. There are many varieties belonging to this family. The most familiar varieties are Deglet Nour, Medjool and Halawi.
The Medjool dates variety became very popular because of its intense sweet taste, large size and soft juicy texture.
The Medjool is also called Medjoul, Madjhul, Medjul. Sometimes we hear exotic names as “King of Dates”, The “Date of the Kings”, Jumbo Dates, and so forth, they are all refer to the Medjool Dates.
Where are Medjool Dates growing ?
Medjool Dates are growing in hot, dry climates. There are large commercial plantations in Israel, Jordan Valley, Palestinian Authority, USA- California, Mexico, South Africa, Namibia, Morocco, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Each year the trees give one harvest. Harvest time for the Northern Hemisphere is between September to November, and in the Southern Hemisphere between March and May.
Where are our Medjool Dates coming from ?
buy-bio.eu imports the dates from Jordan Valley which is between the dead sea and the sea of Gaillilee.
Why? The Jordan Valley Medjool dates have a special quality: they are darker, softer, juicier compare to other origins. Do you want to learn more about the social aspects of our dates? Read more here
Why buy organic Medjool Dates?
Organic certified dates are grown without synthetic pesticide and fertilizers. This is better for the environment, soil, employees and us, that eat the dates. However this comes at a cost. Organic dates are about 25%-30% more expensive than conventional dates. The reason for this is that farmers have lower yield, and sometimes many dates are not suitable for export because of insect damage. So we are happy to pay a little more for organic product, to compensate our farmers for their extra hard work.
How are the Medjool Dates treated after harvest?
After the harvest, dates are brought to the packing house and go into solar disinfection for few hours (+/-50 C). This temperature is native to the natural growing conditions of the palm dates, which means that the fruit is not cooked or changed. Then they are washed, sorted and packed in boxes. The boxes are deep frozen in -18C to keep shelf life for almost 2 years. Dates are not irradiated or further treated.
How are we sorting Medjool Dates ?
Medjool dates are sorted into sizes, which is determined by grams per fruit and sorted according to skin separation- the amount that the skin is loose from the date fruit-meat.
This quality sorting is purely optical. That means that all the export dates are actually the same regarding internal quality, freshness, taste, texture etc. Sometimes high skin separation looks like the date is “dried out” however the exact opposite is correct. High skin separation is usually a symptom of very juicy moist date.
So more expensive dates (larger with low skin separation) are not tastier or better than smaller dates with higher skin separation.
How to store Medjool Dates?
You can store Medjool Dates in many ways. Always keep them in a closed container so they don’t dry out. In room temperature they keep 1-2 months, in the fridge 6-10 months and deep freeze more than a year. It is allowed to re- freeze dates because of the low active water content and therefore low bacterial activity in the Dates.
Anyway trust yourself and your nose when deciding if the dates are still good or not.
You can buy organic Medjool dates here, directly from the importer. Best quality for the best price!
Average nutritional values per 100g | |
| Energy (in kj/kcal) | 1160 kj / 277 kcal |
| Fat | 0,2 g |
| -of which Saturates | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 75 g |
| -of which Sugars | 66.5 g |
| Fibre | 7 g |
| Protein | 1,8 g |
| Salt | < 0.01g |
