Shields Date Garden is possibly the most earnest place in all of Coachella Valley, especially during the festival weekend. The date orchard has become a tourist trap in the best sense of the word: It’s ramshackle, it’s been there forever, and it focuses on an unusual, hyperlocal product. Yep, dates have somehow thrived under these arid conditions.
Chances are, the last time you saw one of these dried, sticky fruits, your granddad was trying to pawn them off as “nature’s candy.” But dates are pretty important to Palm Desert—see, the fruit grows on the palm trees that give the desert its name—and have been since the ’20s, when Floyd and Bess Shields came out to California and started their very own garden in the midst of the area’s burgeoning date-farming business.
Floyd was particularly zealous about the fruits of his labor, and he would give lectures to educate customers about date culture. Those presentations have been committed to film and are played in an air-conditioned, wood-paneled move theater, where visitors can chill out and watch a movie titled “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date.”
Yeah, that Mr. Shields might have been something of a perv. He bred two proprietary hybrids and named them Blonde and Brunette (no Redhead, however). But the most wondrous creation from this garden is by far the date milkshake. It’s made with date crystals, which are also a Shields invention and a registered trademark. Throw them in with some ice cream and you’ve got what amounts to a vanilla shake on steroids.
A film about sexy, swaying palms with a date shake or date ice cream cone—it’s one of the best ways to beat the heat and the ‘tude in Indio. You can also go on a mini shopping spree in the store, where fresh grapefruits share space with huge platters of dates—plain, mixed, stuffed with nuts, rolled in coconut. Take one back to Gramps and tell him all about your weekend. Well, this part, anyway.
Katherine Spiers is a contributing editor for Metromix Los Angeles.
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