Where to find the best dates in Southern California

This mid-week dispatch comes from Gillian Ferguson, Supervising Producer of Good Food and host of Good Food's Market Report

As I am writing this, my phone pings with an LA Times alert announcing the Coachella 2026 lineup. Sabrina Carpenter. Justin Bieber. I swipe left and dismiss it. I’m focused on another corner of the Coachella Valley, closer to the Salton Sea, where date palms stand tall, their feet in the water and their heads in the fire, as the old saying goes.

Now is the time to seek out fresh dates in Southern California, and I have yet to find a more delicious specimen than the ones grown by the Bautista family in Mecca. If you don’t believe me, just ask the customer who sends boxes of them to his rabbi in Israel. (The rabbi concurred, they are the best dates in the world.)

Alvaro Bautista brings clusters of Barhi dates in various stages to the Santa Monica and Hollywood farmers’ markets. If you look carefully, you can see one ripe date in the center oozing what Alvaro calls “liquid gold.”

This time of year, it’s all about the Barhi dates, which you can eat in their khalal stage while they are still yellow and crunchy and taste of coconut water and sugarcane. Or, if you arrive early at the farmers market, you can request what Alvaro Bautista calls the “liquid gold,” a clamshell of tree-ripened Barhi dates so juicy they’ll ferment if you look at them too long.

Texturally, these super-ripe dates remind me of Ferran Adrià’s liquid olives, made famous here in Los Angeles by José Andrés at his late-aughts sensation Bazaar; but this isn’t molecular gastronomy, it’s just Alvaro on a ladder in the desert, patiently waiting for nature to coax the maximum flavor out of the fruit. You won’t find “liquid gold” in a supermarket. They are too fragile to travel. Eat them immediately, or put them right in your fridge.

Alvaro on the ranch in Mecca.

So how did the Bautistas come to farm dates in the desert?

Alvaro’s dad, Enrique, grew up on the outskirts of Jiquilpan in Michoacán where he farmed corn and milked cows. He fell in love, moved to Southern California, and raised five kids while working the land. When the school year finished, all five kids joined their parents picking crops in Bakersfield and Delano, and then up to Washington State to pick apples. “Looking back on it, it was fun,” Alvaro says with a laugh.

During the school year, the Bautistas lived across from a date ranch in Mecca, where Enrique got a job, became foreman, and eventually, in 1999, purchased the ranch from the previous owners who had one request: don’t change a thing.

The Bautistas kept their promise, and today they tend roughly 1,000 date palms on the property. It’s a year-round process that Alvaro equates to taking care of babies. (Did I mention that fourteen Bautista babies have been raised on the ranch?)

Every tree is hand-pollinated, which requires climbing up 25-foot ladders and straddling the palm fronds to harvest pollen from male trees and hand-pollinate the female blossoms. Then they cover each bunch with bags to keep the pollen from blowing away and wait until they are ready for harvest.

You can watch a video of Alvaro on the farm on Good Food’s Instagram reel below. Isn’t it gorgeous? There is something so majestic about the date palms. Regal even.

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While the Barhi dates steal the show this time of year, the Baustista family grows seven varieties, each with their own qualities, and all freshly harvested in late August and early September. Alvaro’s favorite is the Halawy, which tastes of caramel. I prefer the Khadrawy, which veers more toward brown sugar. This variety is especially good later in the season when the sugars crystallize and crackle in your mouth. Medjools are known far and wide for their size and richness, and the Zahidis are chewy due to their reduced water content. No one will turn their nose up at a Honey date, and the mild Deglet Noor will be familiar to anyone who grew up with commercial dates in Southern California. (When you see date palms on the parkways in Los Angeles, according to Alvaro, they are likely Deglet Noor.)

If you’re cooking this week, now’s the time to make Rawaan Alkhatib’s Rutab & Summer Tomatoes with Sizzling Brown Butter.

If you’re strapped for time, do what Alvaro does and stuff a Medjool date with peanut butter and put it in the freezer for a refreshing snack.

And if you can’t make it to the farmers’ market, fret not. You can order Bautista dates online at 7 Hot Dates.

See you at the market,

Gillian

BAUTISTA FAMILY ORGANIC DATE RANCH

Find the Bautista family at the Wednesday and Saturday Downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market, the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market, the Saturday Palm Springs Market, and bi-weekly in Torrance and Irvine on Saturdays.

The farm does accept visitors, but you will want to reach out a few days in advance to set up your visit with the family.

If you’re a true date aficionado, you will love Rawaan Alkhatib’s Hot Date! Sweet and Savory Recipes Celebrating the Date from Party Food to Everyday Feasts. I’m also a fan of Nawal Nasrallah’s Dates: A Global History, which is full of cultural history. Evan spoke to Nasrallah in 2012, and she recounted the fascinating story of how the medjool was saved from extinction when a botanist planted nine offshoots in the Nevada desert. A disease had wiped out the crop in Morocco, but the American specimens thrived, thus preserving this variety for future generations.