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Yellow Dates: What This Fruit Is and Why It’s Usually Barhi
If you have seen bright yellow dates on a bunch and wondered what this fruit is, the short answer is that yellow dates are not a variety — yellow is a ripening stage. Every date on every palm goes through it. Medjool, Zahidi, Barhi and Deglet Noor are all yellow before they turn brown.
The yellow dates most people have actually seen and eaten are Barhi, because Barhi is the one variety genuinely good to eat at that stage. More on why below.
We grow these. Zahidi Dates | California-Grown & Farm-Direct | Desert Sun Dates from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $19/lb, shipping included. See them →
What varies is how long that stage lasts, how it tastes, and whether anyone bothers to sell the fruit while it is still yellow.
The three stages of a ripening date
| Stage | Looks like | Tastes like |
|---|---|---|
| Khalal | Firm, bright yellow or red, glossy | Crisp and crunchy, like a firm apple. Sweet in some varieties, astringent in most |
| Rutab | Softening, browning from the tip down, often half yellow and half brown | Honey-sweet, very soft, high moisture |
| Tamar | Fully brown, cured, wrinkled | Deep caramel sweetness, lower moisture, keeps for months |
A single bunch on our palms will hold all three at once. The fruit does not ripen evenly, which is why harvest is not one day’s work — we go through the same palm several times across the season.
Yellow Barhi dates: why the yellow fruit you have seen is almost always Barhi
Because Barhi is the one variety that is genuinely good to eat at the khalal stage.
Most varieties are astringent when yellow — edible, but they dry your mouth out and nobody would choose them. Barhi is the exception. Yellow Barhi is crisp, sweet and slightly grassy, closer to eating a sweet apple than a date. It is a completely different experience from the soft brown fruit, and people who grew up with it wait for it every year.
Zahidi can also be eaten yellow, though it is less commonly sold that way. We grow it and we still sell it brown — the reasons are below. If you want the difference between the two varieties spelled out, we wrote Zahidi vs Medjool as a grower who packs both.
So “yellow dates” in a shop or at a farm stand almost always means khalal Barhi. The term is general, the fruit usually isn’t.
Why we only sell brown dates
This is the honest part, and it is an operational answer rather than a quality one.
Khalal fruit is on a clock. Once dates start turning, they move fast. You either sell them within a very short window or you let them run through to fully ripe. There is no holding them.
We ship nationwide by USPS, typically 3 to 4 days in transit. Yellow fruit does not survive that. It would leave the farm crisp and arrive somewhere in between, which is nobody’s idea of a good date.
Fully ripe tamar fruit is different. We flash-freeze at harvest and store it frozen until it ships, which means the box you open is the fruit as it was when it came off the palm — not something that has been sitting in a warehouse slowly ageing.
That is the trade-off. Selling khalal makes you a farm-stand business. Selling tamar lets you ship to someone in Pittsburgh and have it arrive the way it should.
If you want to know who else grows dates in this valley and how their seasons run, we wrote a grower’s guide to the date farms of the Coachella Valley — sixteen farms, honestly described.
What we grow, and what you can buy
Medjool — large, soft, caramel-sweet. Sold at tamar. In stock now.
Zahidi — golden, semi-dry, firmer and nuttier. Sold at tamar. Can be eaten at khalal, but we don’t sell it that way. In stock now.
Barhi — the honey-sweet one, and the variety most people mean when they say yellow dates. We sell Barhi fully ripe, not yellow. We have no Barhi stock this season. It will be back with the next harvest.
If Barhi is what brought you here, tell us and we will email you when it is picked. No deposit, no obligation — we would rather write to you when there is fruit than take an order we cannot fill.
Common questions
Are yellow dates unripe?
Not exactly. Khalal is a genuine ripeness stage, not an unripe one — the fruit has reached full size and full sugar development. It simply has not cured yet. Most varieties are unpleasant at that stage; a few are excellent.
Can you eat yellow dates?
Barhi, yes, and it is a treat. Most other varieties are astringent enough that you would not want to.
Do yellow dates turn brown if you leave them?
Yes. Left at room temperature, khalal fruit will move through rutab to tamar on its own. It happens quickly, which is exactly why khalal is hard to sell at any distance.
Are yellow dates a different variety?
No. Yellow is a stage every variety passes through. What differs is whether that variety is worth eating while it lasts.
Which dates do you sell yellow?
None. We sell Medjool, Zahidi and Barhi fully ripe. The reasons are above.
Written by Jason Shopshear, who grows Medjool, Zahidi and Barhi dates at Desert Sun Dates in Sky Valley, California. If you want to know how something grows, ask the person who grows it — the farm is on Longvue Road and the phone is (760) 501-1845.
From our farm to your door
We grow every date we sell on our family farm in Sky Valley, California. Shipping is included in the price to the lower 48.
- Jumbo Medjool Dates — large, soft, caramel-sweet, from $19
- Golden Zahidi Dates — firm, nutty — the baking date, from $19
- Barhi Dates — butterscotch, creamy, seasonal, between harvests
