I come across many people that think a fig is a date or a date is a fig. How can we get rid of this misconception? They are nothing alike, at all.

My exterior is cool and calm when someone makes this mistake and I patiently explain. But I'm burning inside! :)

Nothing against dates, I enjoy them just as much, just got a very special batch of freshly picked dates from the mother land recently.

Can we make this a Figs Foundation mission? Can we make a website http://www.figsarenotdates.com. http://www.whatisafig.com and have it forward to this site?

Or is it just me and no one else is annoyed by this? :)

This has never happened to me, but I live in the Date capital of Southern California.  We even have a Date Festival!  There are date palms everywhere, and everyone here knows the difference.

Good luck with your quest!

Suzi

Date festival sounds amazing!

All of the sudden I need a date! Not the kind with dinner and a movie

In just about ever recipe that calls for raisins, I substitute dates and/or dried sour cherries, but not dried figs.

Only a few times have I come across someone who was confused about the difference between dates and figs.

James,

You should try them in an oatmeal raisin cookie recipe; substitute chopped up dried figs for the raisins and sunflower seeds instead of walnuts. You need to decrease the amount of sunflower seeds a bit though.

I'm sorry but this has never happened to me.

Dates for fig cuttings............ hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Suzi

My neighbor showed me his beautiful fig tree but I was surprised when I saw that it was a persimmon tree. I think I laughed for two days.

LOL

Sounds like a load of Who Shot Sam to me.

Rafed sent me on a mission today, and I found myself stopping by a commercial date farm just so you know the difference.  I took a photo.  The dates have bags covering them, not from  predators, but from rain.  Rain destroys dates!!  So, they take the time to cover miles of date palms.

Dates grow on this:

Figs grow on this:

Dates are so good.  This year someone at the farmers market was selling really fresh but ripe date fruit before they were dried.  They were really good, not like the supersweet dried dates, but still really sweet.   Like good ripe figs, they are hard to come by.  If you ever get a chance to eat some, you gotta try them.  Love date shakes too.   But fresh ripe figs are even better.  Sorry, this comment has nothing to do with people getting mixed up.  Frankly, I don't know very many people who know or love dates or figs.

Thanks for the pictures. I have never seen a date tree, nor have i eaten a fresh date. They have all been dehydrated.

I love FRESH undried dates! Those are so good. They can spoil/ferment fast so I guess not sold as much in the states.

I just had some top class ones... mmmmmmm.

Thank you Suzi for the visual lesson :)

i think there are newer dwarfed varieties of date palms could fit into regular greenhouse... but havent seen them stateside yet. but i dont know what crazy things go on in california so maybe there.

Oh yes, there are date farms in CA and AZ. Fun to stop by on your way to Disneyland if you're driving. Still in the 100 degrees daily here in AZ.

dates are good. but i like figs better. heck around here, not many people can tell the difference.

If California gas prices weren't so high, I'd go about 5 miles and take a photo of a dwarfed orchard.  Truth is, I didn't eve think of them as dwarf trees.  Just thought they hadn't grown tall yet, but they are loaded with dates.  Easier to pick.  They have ladders hung at the top of the tall trees, and there are evil thorns, so the harvesters wear leather gloves.

Suzi

I just found a place here in WA state that sells 'Shields' Date Shakes . I remember growing up in Indio, as a kid and  riding our bikes about 5 miles in the 100+ degree heat just to have a Date shake. I don't think I have had an actual date (the fruit that is ) in 30 years.

Cody!

Shields is on Hwy 111 and they have this crazy black and white movie about the sex life of the date!!  This is where I learned that they bag them high to protect from rain.  I live seconds from Indio!!

Suzi

Dates are similar to other fruit-most people that haven't been blown away by one just haven't had a properly grown one. There's a whole spectrum in quality. The best dates in the world are just as to die for/faint as anything else in my opinion.

The dwarfed ones I'm talking about are are literally human height with fruit more of a collector's item for backyard orchardists (in the middle east). Not very common.

In Persian there are words for each stage of ripeness brought to the bazar. They even eat them when they are crunchy and red (think jujubes)--however all the ones I've had here in this stage are too astringent instead of pleasantly sweet, a stage where it's half yellow with a slight crunch and half now brown getting soft, the fully brown and now extremely wet/moist stage (like a ripened fig) this stage spoils fast only limited market availability and the best!, and of course dried up which can be good too but often what people have had as dried dates are 5's or worse on the 10 point date flavor scale.

Suzi, I remember that cheesy old movie. I looked it up last nigh on youtube . It's still the same as I remember.

 Enjoy 

Romance & Sex Life of the Date

OMG Cody!  That's it!  Wow!  They still show it in their little old theater!

Suzi

That was a good video! 

As for the people who don't know the difference between dates and figs?  Drives me nuts!!  I put out dried dates on the dessert buffet once a week with chocolate fondue along with other accompaniments.  Every week without fail there are at least a dozen people who don't know what "it" is, or ask if they are figs!!  I have more respect for the person who asks what it is rather then "you have figs!!"  Really?  You like figs but don't know what they look like?  Oh how I wish I could say that to the guests!! 

Speaking of pet peeves - picky eaters over the age of 5!  People who don't "like it" (whatever "it" is)  but have never had it?  Really??? Are you 5 years old?  No, I don't say that either lol..  What I do say is, "try it!!!!  it could change your life!!!"