These are my new best friend.Medjool Dates.
They are so delicious.
I'm a little bit in love with stores that sell bulk items. (I'm talking bulk bins here, not 20 lb blocks of cheese, although those have their place, too.) Stores with extensive bulk bin collections are fantastic, because they allow me to buy very small quantities of items I don't normally eat. Like Medjool dates. I bought five Medjool dates yesterday so that I could put them in the most fantastic quinoa salad. My salad consisted of quinoa, chickpeas, toasted walnuts, dates, and cinnamon and cumin and stuff. Soooo tasty. I want to award myself a trophy for that salad. I win first prize for making myself happy with whole grains. And now I want to buy 20 pounds of Medjool dates and use them in all my cooking and make edible furniture out of them and talk about them incessantly, because I love them.
Bulk bin stores are also great because they usually provide grains and coconut and dried fruits at a much lower price than other stores, since you're not paying for the packaging. And because bulk bin buying is earth-friendly and all, bulk bin stores tend to be sort of hippie havens, fulfilling all your Burt's Bees needs (I don't have any such needs but I like to know that they could be met by my local bulk food store if necessary) and vegan treats and composting supplies and cheese-making provisions and the like. One of my favorite bulk bin shopping stores is Bloomingfoods in Bloomington, Indiana. It's everything a bulk bin store should be. The store I currently frequent for my Medjool dates and grains is strange. It's the kind of bulk store that believes with all its heart in weird supplements and living off drinks made from wheat grass and echinacea. I can't get behind that. It's the only place in town (that I'm aware of) that has bulk bins, though, so I slip in and out as fast as possible, stopping only very occasionally to speak lovingly to the Burt's Bees products.
[photo from "Medjool: A Date to Remember" Kitchen Window. http://npr.org. 17.10.2007]
9 comments:
I miss Bloomingfoods. Good times were had there!
oh my holy heck! i used to have a really old blog, and no joke, i wrote and ENTIRE entry about every single kind of date that i bought at good earth. i agree, medjool are the best. deglet noors royally stink.
Burt's lip balm--the original mind you--is a piece of heaven. Kisses from Burt makes my lips tingle with minty delight.
It is kind of sad actually that you can find Burt's Bees products at places other besides organic hippie stores. For example, my local CVS carries them. I think though that they must be inferior.
And where do medjool dates come from? Yuma Arizona or our neighbor city across the river, Bard California. Seriously. If you want some fresh tell me and and I will ship you oodles of them. Date shakes are a very popular old people thing here.
I've never tried any but now I feel that I must rush out right now and buy some.
Good to know that at least somebody around here is having dates these days!
I know the exact store you're talking about . . . My now-defunct grocery store in Chicago had a great bulk foods section where you could get oatmeal for $0.70/lb etc. etc. The one here is also lovely, and even sells locally produced and milled whole wheat flour.
A few years back I went to a presentation given by one of the Burt's Bees people and became absolutely hooked. Good marketing--I spent a lot of money on their stuff in the next 2 years. I've finally swung back to my more natural state of not buying. :) So beware . . .
Medjool dates are the best. At Christmas, I stuff them with cream fondant and roll them in sugar. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I would marry stuffed dates if they were a man. I by them at Costco and then keep them in the fridge while I eat them. In answer to Eliana, the Medjool dates I buy are from California. I think I'll go home and eat some.
Emily--SUCH good times were had there, especially at the East Side store.
Rebekah--And THAT is why we are friends.
Lady Susan--Never actually tried the Burt's Bees, but I'm tempted.
Eliana--You are the luckiest human alive. Absolutely, I want them fresh. We will be in touch.
Yankee Girl--Rush! I always thought dates were kind of gritty and bland, but these babies are moist and sweet and full of flavor.
Alice--KNEW someone was going to make that joke. I did feel a little weird typing about purchasing dates, because the alternate meaning was there in my head.
Chou--Yeah, the grain prices are crazy low. I doubt our store carries local products, but I should check. It might help me love them more.
Wow, Moo! I had never even considered such a treatment of the dates. Is that sugar overload at all? They start out pretty naturally sweet.
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