Of course, here in the Coachella Valley, the planting, growing, and harvesting seasons have their own timetables. Approximately 66,000 acres of the Valley’s 297,156 acres are under cultivation. Big cash crops such as broccoli, watermelon, sweet corn, lettuce, bell peppers, and table grapes are typically planted in the early fall to early winter and harvested in the spring or early summer. Agriculture produced a gross return of $730,000,000 in 2014, according to the Coachella Valley Resource Conservation District website.
Dates are the one crop that more or less conforms to the rest of the country’s growing season. Largely begun as an experiment over 100 years ago in our eastern communities, Coachella Valley dates now account for 90% of the dates grown in the U.S. – some 35,000 tons.
We profile date farmer Mark Tadros, owner of Aziz Farms, in this issue. Mark’s father, Tadros Tadros, emigrated from his native Egypt with a university degree in agriculture. After working as a tennis pro in the Valley, he realized a lifelong dream by purchasing a date farm in Thermal. Though Mark graduated from culinary school and worked as a chef, he eventually returned home to help his father with the farm. Mark expanded his father’s dream by creating The Packhouse at Aziz Farms, a working 10-acre farm. He and his wife, Nicole, an educator, designed the space to serve as both an event venue and an open classroom that schoolchildren can visit. Students learn to appreciate the stages of farming, from planting a seed to nurturing and harvesting plants. Mark and his family are thoroughly committed to achieving sustainable agriculture and encouraging the next generation of farmers to follow suit. And that is a vision worthy of Thanksgiving.
—Tom Niva, Publisher
