Cooking with California Dates: Six Dutchess Farm Meets Rancho Meladuco Date Farm
Six Dutchess in the Kitchen | Live, Hands-On Virtual Class
Taught by Joan Smith and hosted by Six Dutchess Farm.
In this class, Joan will share some of her favorite recipes for enjoying California dates, from favorite holiday appetizers to quick-bite snacks.
Dates are the fruit of the Date Palm, an ancient grass (not a tree) and one of the oldest cultivated crops in the world. Dates are a surprisingly versatile fruit offering caramel and brown sugar sweetness and both a succulent soft texture and a candy-like chew. They also happen to be a nutrient-dense super food! Once upon a time, hundreds of roadside date shops could be found throughout the growing regions of southern California and Arizona; however, today, just a few remain. With their sweet, caramel-like quality, they make a great natural sweetener to many dishes but are equally enjoyable as a stand-alone snack.
Here is our menu for the afternoon:
Cinnamon Date Compound Butter
Bacon, Date & Cheddar Breakfast Biscuits
Baked Cambozola Dip with Dates & Toasted Hazelnuts
Cheesy Stuffed Dates, Wrapped in Prosciutto
Derby Chocolate Bourbon Balls
This class will be limited to 25 registrants, first-come, first-served.
RECORDING
This class is recorded in full and you will receive the live recording, along with the recipe packet, within 24 hours of the class to enjoy and cook along on your own time. This ensures that you will not miss any class content should you be unable to attend live.
PREPARATION:
Cooking with California Dates: Six Dutchess Farm Meets Rancho Meladuco Date Farm is a live, interactive cooking class, hosted in the Hudson Valley by Six Dutchess Farm on Zoom, and taught by Joan Smith from her Rancho Meladuco farm kitchen. Recipes, a full ingredient list, and a Zoom link will be provided one week prior to class. Though you are not required to cook along, it does make the experience more immersive and it provides you with a real Sunday treat. We welcome and encourage you to cook and learn along with your loved ones. As always, our farm note subscribers have a 3-day priority registration period, starting today.
CANCELLATIONS
Please note, due to the small size of this class and its virtual nature, registration is non-refundable and class credit is not given should you find yourself unable to attend.
instructions
For those registered, we'll be providing a link and discount code (courtesy of Joan!), to purchase Rancho Meladuco Medjool dates for this class. You are welcome to use any dates you like, though, friendly warning, once you try Joan's dates, you'll be a life-long Rancho Meladuco enthusiast (like us!) and a compulsive date gift-giver. Trust us on this one. For friends in Sarasota, Florida, Louise at Artisan Cheese Company will also be putting together special orders of Rancho Meladuco dates and cheeses for this class.
About the Instructor | Joan Smith
Meet Joan, founder and co-owner of Rancho Meladuco Date Farm.
Rancho Meladuco Date Farm was founded by Joan Smith in the Fall of 2015. Joan is a resident of Orange County California, a mother of 3, a CPA by trade, a fabulous cook, and, most recently, a date farmer. She grew up in Bakersfield, California and spent her youth exploring 640 acres of rolling foothills while helping her family care for their cattle. Her childhood instilled in her a passion for working the land and a deep admiration for the people who raise food doing it.
Growing and cooking good food has been a lifelong joy for Joan. She bought her first farmhouse at 28 and transformed the neglected acreage into a beautiful and productive garden. She met her husband on a blind date and moved to Newport Beach. Once there, they bought a membership in a century-old duck hunting club just outside of Mecca, at the north end of the Salton Sea, close to Coachella, in the best date-growing region in the US. Eventually, they had the opportunity to buy out the other owners, which led them to where they are today and the birth of Rancho Meladuco Date Farm.
About the Farm I Rancho Meladuco Date Farm
Rancho Meladuco Date Farm is located in California's Coachella Valley, not far from Palm Springs. It was founded by Joan in 2015. Long ago, someone planted seven date palms on the property. A freelance “palmero” came several times throughout the year to maintain the trees, pollinate the bunches, and harvest dates as they ripened. Joan and her family were blown away by the large, sweet Medjool dates their trees produced, and when they started sharing them with friends and family, they got so many rave reviews that they quickly got to the point of keeping a wait list for the next season’s dates. They began planting more date palms, and the idea of their date farm was born.
Joan began farming dates just seven years ago this past October, and she hasn’t looked back. Today, they grow more than three hundred trees and ten different varieties including several “heirloom” varieties originating in the U.S. Her goals are simple: To grow and procure the best tasting dates possible and cultivate a broader audience in the US for the delicious and nutritious date. In short, to make dates a new national obsession.