Getting Schooled on Agriculture and Water in Yuma

We had three different tours planned during our stay in Yuma, Arizona. They all just happened to be morning tours, so we have set the alarm clock earlier than usual. But we have learned more about our new home-town. One of our favorite tours was at the Imperial Date Farm. We've gone on dates, we've memorized historical dates, but the truth is we haven't eaten many dates in our lives. This day we learned that the medjool date is the preferred type, and the weather conditions in Yuma are perfect for the medjool.

The trees must have warm winters and even warmer summers. Yuma has the 100 days over 100 degrees that date palm trees need. They also have the water rights from the Colorado River that allow them to flood these fields and provide 200 gallons of water per tree per day. These are thirsty trees! Right now the workers are spending their time removing the thorns from the palm fronds. They use a portable scaffolding system that lifts them to the top of the trees.

These younger trees are shorter, so easier to trim and harvest. Another part of the harvesting process is to thin the fruit. These younger trees will have their fruit thinned so they raise less than half the crop that first sets on.

These older trees won't have to be thinned as much, and they can produce up to 200 pounds of dates per trees. But these taller trees will still have to have bags tied around each branch of fruit to protect them from damage and help with the harvest process. Each tree requires much hand labor during the year--hand trimming, hand germinating, hand thinning, hand bagging, and also several trips up that tall trunk to harvest dates as they ripen.

The good news for the date farmers is that it is easy to propagate new trees. The seedlings that develop at the base of the tree can be removed here and then planted as a new tree in a new field.

We saw one of those new fields of tiny starter trees--flooded with water to help satisfy the thirst of these water-loving trees.

We also got a tour of the processing plant, where the dates are cleaned, sized, graded, and then boxed and frozen. Dates can be thawed and frozen over and over, and we also saw the warehouse-size freezers where a whole year's harvest can be stored.

At the end of every tour is a sample, and we tried a piece of a premium medjool date. But the real treat that everyone talks about is the coveted date shake. That huge straw allows for all those chunks of dates to get through. It was tasty, but very rich. It might be the first time Denisa has heard Mark say that he was full of ice cream by the time we got to the bottom of that cup!

Another tour was to the Peanut Patch, where we learned about and tasted all things peanut. We assumed we would see peanut fields, but they are no longer grown around Yuma. We found that peanut plants host white flies--which destroy leafy vegetable crops. Because this is the lettuce capitol of the world, peanut farmers gave up their crop years ago to ger rid of the white flies and save the lettuce. It was interesting to see that the nuts they are now using for the Peanut Patch brittle and fudge came from Texas or Oklahoma. The owner did teach us much about peanuts, and we got to see their roasters and kitchens. No pictures, because we ate the brittle and fudge before we thought about how picturesque it was.

The last early morning wake up tour was with the Yuma Desalting plant. Mark had read that they offered tours on request, and we found that we could join a group on Friday. This group was from the University of Wisconsin, and we expected college coeds. Instead, we were surprised to find we were the youngsters on this "continuing learning" tour for senior adults.

We started with the electronic version of the tour, that included a well done model of the entire process that water would pass through to remove the excess salt.

Our second surprise of the morning came when we found out that this plant hasn't been operational for years. Even though it was built in 1992 for $250 million, it has just set ready to "fix" the water coming down the canals. Their purpose is to bring that water up to code in order to provide the amount of water necessary in water agreements with Mexico. So far, the United States has been able to provide the water to their southern neighbor without the help of this desalting plant.

This is an expensive process, that uses the same technology as osmosis purifiers that many households use under their kitchen sinks. We were walked through the giant buildings that hold all the equipment needed to run vast amounts of water through here on a 24-hour-per day process.

But these giant tanks and vats are lying empty. The team of people here are keeping the screws tightened and the gears greased until they get the orders to start the water works. 

The last time water flowed through here was seven years ago when they did a test run just to prove that they could be operational. They could do it again, but they estimate that it would take 18 months to start up. In the meantime, they give a very informative tour including some mighty fancy head gear.

It wasn't the tour we expected, but still was educational. We feel like we know more about the agricultural and water aspects of Yuma now, and that's a part of travel that we really enjoy.