Shields Date Garden

Shields Date Garden is the essential roadside stop of the Coachella Valley, and the best place to understand why this desert grows most of America's dates. Founded in 1924 in Indio, about forty minutes down-valley from Palm Springs on Highway 111, it has been introducing visitors to date culture for nearly a century. Start at the store's sample counter, where you can taste the different varieties the company grows and harvests, from soft, caramel-like dates to firmer, drier types, and pick up boxes to take home. Then head to the original 1960s-era counter for a date shake, the region's signature treat of ice cream blended with dates, which is thick, sweet and exactly what a hot desert afternoon calls for. Inside the store, a film with the memorable title The Romance and Sex Life of the Date plays continuously, explaining with vintage charm how date palms are hand-pollinated and harvested; it is both informative and a kitsch classic. Shields' award-winning café serves breakfast and lunch, with many dishes built around dates. Outside, The Walk at Shields winds through the 17-acre date grove and botanical garden, with 23 hand-crafted statues depicting the life of Christ arranged in 14 scenes, relocated here from a garden in Vancouver; an audio narrative can be played on your phone. The garden is generally open from 8am to 4pm, closes on windy days, and the company suggests calling ahead in unsettled weather. Browsing the store, tasting and watching the film cost nothing; you pay for shakes, food and dates.

Dates are not native to California. Date palms were brought from North Africa and the Middle East in the early twentieth century, and the Coachella Valley's heat, sun and underground water proved ideal; Indio still celebrates them with its annual date festival. Walking through the grove, you see palms in rows with their fruit clusters bagged or tied as they ripen, and the scale of the work involved in hand-pollinating and harvesting each tree becomes obvious. The film fills in the rest with humor, and the café lets you taste dates in savory dishes as well as sweet.

Shields makes a perfect stop on several routes: on the way to or from the Salton Sea, on the drive back from Joshua Tree's South Entrance via Interstate 10, or on a festival weekend in Indio. Go mid-morning for a calm visit and breakfast at the café, or mid-afternoon for a shake. Weekends in high season can be busy, especially around the festivals. If you are traveling home by plane, ask about boxed dates for travel or shipping.

It suits almost everyone: families for the shakes and the film, couples for a sweet road-trip stop, and food lovers curious about the region's agriculture. If you cannot make it to Indio, Palm Springs and Palm Desert have good date shakes of their own, but nothing quite replaces the original counter in the middle of a working date grove.