Every summer, most wives and kids return to the states while their poor husband's stay here and work. We did this last summer, but since Charlotte and I recently returned from a 3 month stint in the states, we'll be sticking it out here this summer. Most wives and kids go home in the summer to avoid the heat of Bahrain and to get out of Ramadan, which begins at the end of this month. Ramadan is a month long period for Muslims to fast from eating, drinking, and sex. During Ramadan, it is illegal for anyone - Muslim or not - to drink or eat in public from sunup to sundown. This includes water. Considering it's 110 degrees outside, that's just silly and unhealthy since there are still people who have to work outside during this time. Muslims observe Ramadan to "purge" themselves and to resist temptation. To them, it's supposed to be a month to teach them patience and humility. Although, if you really want to resist temptation and learn patience and humility, then you'd think they'd allow non-Muslims to eat and drink in front of them. If no one's allowed to eat or drink around them, then it's not really a temptation, is it? People also skirt the rules of Ramadan by sleeping all day and staying up all night. How this is tolerated or in the spirit of Ramadan, I don't know, but many people do it. But I digress. This post isn't supposed to be about Ramadan but what we did last night: date picking.
Since our family will be staying in Bahrain this summer, we won't miss the date harvesting season like we did last year. We have 3 date trees in our yard alone, plus others around our compound. I have never had a fresh date before and since they're starting to ripen, we decided to go outside as a family last night and look for some ripe dates. It was also Charlotte's first time eating a fresh date and she LOVED them. She kept asking for more even though there weren't too many ripe dates yet. If you've never tried fresh dates before, they are quite sweet and I think they sort of taste like a honey soaked raisins. Today, I'm going to "test" ripening dates in our oven. When they're yellow, it means they're almost ripe, and I read on the Internet that you can pick yellow dates and ripen them in the heat as long as they're not in the sun. We'll see if the oven does the trick. If not, we'll have to be patient and just pick them as they ripen on the tree. Here's some photos from last night:
Chris reaching for some ripe dates, but our ladder is not quite tall enough for this date tree!
Charlotte taking an opportunity to ride her bike.
The date palm tree in our front yard.
Here are a couple clusters of dates that are unripe and almost ripe.
Chris obliging me and posing for the camera!
The green dates are unripe, the yellow dates are almost ripe, and the reddish brown dates are ripe.
Charlotte loving these dates!
Yummy!
Since our family will be staying in Bahrain this summer, we won't miss the date harvesting season like we did last year. We have 3 date trees in our yard alone, plus others around our compound. I have never had a fresh date before and since they're starting to ripen, we decided to go outside as a family last night and look for some ripe dates. It was also Charlotte's first time eating a fresh date and she LOVED them. She kept asking for more even though there weren't too many ripe dates yet. If you've never tried fresh dates before, they are quite sweet and I think they sort of taste like a honey soaked raisins. Today, I'm going to "test" ripening dates in our oven. When they're yellow, it means they're almost ripe, and I read on the Internet that you can pick yellow dates and ripen them in the heat as long as they're not in the sun. We'll see if the oven does the trick. If not, we'll have to be patient and just pick them as they ripen on the tree. Here's some photos from last night:
And here I thought upon first reading your title that you were picking 'dates' to come home...darn! But they do look yummy, don't think I've ever had a date that was fresh.
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