My grandmother loved dates and told me they were the tree of life, a staple food of the desert of Africa and the Middle East and the essential plant on which human life depended. Since they’ve been in cultivation for so long, at least eight thousand years, it’s hard to know exactly where they originated, but most probably from the oasis of northern Africa and the Persian Gulf, the famed fertile crescent. Dates, along with olives, figs, pomegranates, and grapes, were in the second wave of our planet’s cultivated plants. The trees had the drawback of not yielding food for several years after planting, thus cultivation was possible only after people were committed to village life. Images of date palms grace carvings from the earliest period of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.

Dates can grow from seed, but because the fruit may be smaller and the tree may be male, they are usually reproduced by cuttings so that the plant will produce as heavily as its parent. It takes four to seven years for a date to bear fruit and they are able to reproduce for seven to ten years. The fruit we usually buy has been allowed to sun-dry on the tree. Less ripe forms of the fruit are also eaten. In modern cultivation, dates are pollinated by hand; one male plant can pollinate one hundred female plants. Now, a vast spreading of seed is some men’s idea of how things should work for all species. But these male plants need help, so skilled workers climb up on ladders or, in Iraq, use a special tool that is attached to the tree, to pollinate the female trees.

Dates are still a crucial crop in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and North Africa west to Morocco. In Islamic countries, dates and yogurt or milk are the traditional first meal when the sun sets during Ramadan. Dates are also cultivated in southern California and Arizona after being introduced there in the mid 1700s. When we eat dates, we eat the gift from the tree of life.

9

Sissy

Cheeseburger Cookies

2 12-ounce boxes Nilla wafers

1 egg white

1/4 cup sesame seeds

4 to 5 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Yellow food coloring

Red food coloring

1 cup coconut

Green food coloring

2 10-ounce packages grasshopper chocolate-covered cookies

Place the wafers on 2 trays—one should have all the wafers facing up (round side up) and the other should have all the wafers facing down. Each tray should have the same number of wafers, 35 to 40.

Brush the wafers facing up with a little egg white, then sprinkle with sesame seeds on top.

To make the frosting (cheese): Stir 4 tablespoons of milk and the almond extract into the confectioners’ sugar. Add more milk if necessary. Add yellow and red food coloring until you get the color of American cheese.

To color the coconut (lettuce): Place the coconut in a lidded jar and add green food coloring. Shake until lettuce-colored.