Desert Valley Date vs Desert Sun Dates: The Valley’s Packhouse or One Named Farm?

Desert Valley Date in Coachella is where a great deal of the valley’s fruit actually moves: a packing and distribution operation, not a visitor destination, whose dates end up in supermarkets across the country. If you’ve bought Coachella Valley dates at a grocery store, there’s a decent chance they passed through a packhouse like this one.

What Desert Valley Date does well

Scale and logistics. Packing for many growers and supplying national retail is how most American dates reach most Americans — it’s the industry’s backbone, and it works.

We grow these. Golden Zahidi Dates — Nutty, Less Sweet, Never Sticky | California Farm-Direct from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $15/lb, shipping included. See them →

What farm-direct from us looks like

The opposite structure, on purpose: one named farm, our own fruit only, no pooling — grown, packed and shipped from Sky Valley by the family that picked it, days after it leaves the cold room instead of a season after. Jumbo Medjool from $19 (to $9.83/lb by the box), golden Zahidi from $15, cases from $9.00/lb freight included at posted prices.

The honest verdict

A packhouse and a farm aren’t really competitors — they’re two different answers to “how should fruit reach people?” Grocery convenience runs through packhouses. Knowing whose palms grew your box runs through farms like ours. More of the valley, honestly mapped: the grower’s guide.

Written by Jason Shopshear of Desert Sun Dates, Sky Valley, California.