Desert Mountain Dates vs Desert Sun Dates: Two Coachella Valley Farms, Compared Honestly

Desert Mountain Dates is a small grower in our own Coachella Valley — a neighbor, truthfully, in the business of the same desert fruit. People searching the valley’s farms sometimes ask how we compare, so here’s the honest answer, grower to grower.

Two small farms, two ways of selling

Desert Mountain Dates grows Medjool and Deglet Noor and sells the old-fashioned way: you call the farm (their site lists a phone number) and arrange your order. There’s something charming about that — it’s how valley fruit sold for decades.

We grow these. Golden Zahidi Baking Dates — Shipping Included | California Farm-Direct from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $19/lb, shipping included. See them →

Desert Sun Dates is a working farm in Sky Valley, at the foot of the Little San Bernardino Mountains, that decided to build the whole modern path: an online store with live inventory, jumbo Medjool and golden Zahidi graded and photographed, prices posted plainly ($19 for 1 lb, $29 for 2 lb, shipping included), card/PayPal/Venmo checkout, and boxes that ship nationwide from our cold room within days of harvest grading.

The honest comparison

Ordering: with us, you see the price, click, and the box ships — tracked, note card included, to any state. A phone-order farm can be a lovely experience locally; it just can’t quote you a landed price at 11pm or take a Venmo from Boston.

Varieties: they list Medjool and Deglet Noor. We grow jumbo Medjool and golden Zahidi, with seasonal fresh Barhi — and if Deglet Noor is what you’re weighing, read our honest Deglet vs Medjool comparison first; it may change your order.

Transparency: our harvest, our grading, our is-it-really-a-farm proof page, and posted pricing — because farm-direct should mean you can see everything before you spend a dollar.

Which should you choose?

If you live in the valley and enjoy arranging fruit by phone with a neighbor, call them — we mean that. If you want fresh California dates with posted prices, online checkout, and nationwide shipping included, that’s the farm we built: fresh jumbo Medjool, farm-direct.

More honest comparisons: Shields Date Garden · Hadley Fruit Orchards · Medjool Days · Dateland