Palm Grove in Dahshour

September is a beautiful month here in Egypt. Why you may ask? Well because nature puts on a beautiful display of colors especially where the palm groves are still found. 

Climber with a basket

Have you driven by the groves near Saqqara, El Badrasheen, Dahshour or even in Alexandria at Montazah? Have you noticed all the corn stalks hedges that have been put up on the land where the dates will be spread out to continue to ripen and dry? Have you raised your gaze and looked at the ripening dates changing from green to yellow, deep red, brown or black? Have you watched that skilled man climb the palm tree in his bare feet, hanging on to the tree by a rope tied to his waist and around the trunk?  At times he takes a huge flat basket and shakes the fronds to collect the ripened dates and at others he cuts the 3argoon and throws it to the ground.  

The colors are just magnificent! And from a bird's eye view your eyes feast on a beautiful patchwork of fall colors produced by the dates in their varying stages of drying. 

September is also the month we begin drying our own beautiful dates in our solar tunnel. And some years I make date jam too! 

Seewee and haynee dates