Linli Red Dates

Linli Red Dates

　　　Red dates are highly nutritious, serving both as food and medicine. They can be eaten fresh or consumed in processed forms such as dried dates, honey dates, and dark dates. Hence, people vividly describe their value with the proverb “A bushel of dates equals two bushels of grain, plus two pounds of sugar.”

　　Red dates belong to the Rhamnaceae family and are deciduous trees. They are named for their purplish-red color when ripe. In China, red date trees have been cultivated for thousands of years, with references such as “picking dates in the eighth month” found in the Book of Songs.

　　As the saying goes, “Plant a tree for a year, harvest fruit for a hundred.” In Linli, red date trees can be seen everywhere, whether in rural courtyards or on barren hillsides. The reason red dates are so beloved is threefold: first, they are evergreen trees; second, they are cash crops — as recorded in Records of the Grand Historian, “A thousand jujube trees in Anyi are worth as much as a noble title”; and third, during weddings, red dates are scattered on the bridal bed because the word “date” (枣) sounds like “early” (早), symbolizing the wish for having children soon.

　　In Linli, the red dates produced in areas such as Taifu, Guanting, and Wenjia are representative. Long ago, they were similar to golden-thread jujubes — small in size, thin-skinned, thick-fleshed, sweet, and brightly colored. Nowadays, through variety improvement, they have developed into larger dates akin to northern “chicken egg dates,” which are big, tender, small-seeded, sweet, and feature multiple colors in one fruit.