No. And I've never gotten sick from them. Sorry you had such a bad time.

Lars, I've also never washed dates. I've only eaten CA dates. I grew up with dates as a common snack throughout the day. Even today they are a part of our food storage program. Family sends them every year & I vac-pack. Lots of dates today are imported from the middle east. Did you look at the country of origin of the bulk ones? I doubt though that the dates caused your problems but when buying anything in bulk there's always the possibility of something not so good happening.

Sorry you've been under the weather & glad you're feeling better.

/tricia

Thanks! I feel better now about the one I ate this morning. The dates I bought are local (more or less - they came from around Indio), and this is why I felt okay about eating them plain. I had never bought them before, and they looked clean, although there is no way to know what happened to them after they were in the market. I like to use dates as a sweetener for my granola with yogurt - they cut the tartness of the yogurt. I never washed figs either, but then I only ate ones that I grew.

Lars

OH MY GOD..... wait til Jessica gets ahold of this thread.

I've never washed them either.
My mom brings them back from Indio/Palm Springs area.

Lars, hope you're feeling better today.

How far are you from Palm Springs? I'm going to be there in February!

Deanna

LOL Shaun! My thoughts are the same as yours.

Lars, I LOVE the title of this post!

OK Shaun I'll take the bait

'I only wash the French ones'

Lars it sounds like you had a viral infection that you could have picked up from anywhere, and you probably were incubating it long before you ate the first date. Sorry you were under the weather, but glad you are feeling better.

That being said I only purchase packaged foods - never from 'touchable' bulk. I don't think fruit dates are washable. yeah have fun with that.

Ok, obviously EVERYONE beat me to this one. My response was going to be, "Sounds like fun, but I'd prefer it not be necessary."

Well, this took a rather unexpected turn! I'm very bad at not seeing double entendres when I'm writing or talking.

Deanna, I'm about two hours from Palm Springs, and I was planning to go there in February also so that I could go to the Indio Date Festival that occurs around my birthday. Indio hotels get booked up at that time, and so I was planning to stay in PS, which is a short drive away. The Indio Tamale Festival is in early December, and I was considering going to that as well. We have to go to Texas in March for our family reunion (around Kevin's birthday), which we moved from Christmas to March to make travel easier, but I think we can still make Palm Springs in February.

Thanks for the info, Jessica! I was pretty sure that I had a viral infection also, and I do feel fully recovered by now.

Lars

Depends on whether they want to take a shower with me or not...

BUH BUD DUM!

*applause*

Correlation is not causation.

Being ill is no fun but (for fun) substitute dates with anything else and ill with anything else in your post.

You end up with "I was speeding a little on my way home and when I pulled into the driveway I noticed my neighbours shed was on fire. I'm never going to speed again."

see? Did your dentist's nephew eat the same dates? Because he got sick as well.

I never wash anything, even clementines from Muslim counties. Even chicken.

Lars, your symptoms sound like food poisoning to me. could have been the dates - I tend not to like bulk items because who knows who has been going through the stuff.

I have been to the Tamale Festival and the Date Festival in Indio.....loved having so much fun.
And the food at the Tamale Festival was great.

I never wash dates - or raisins - either. I buy Medjool dates in bulk because they're creamy, moist and delicious - the best dates ever. I understand that you'd be leary of eating them again, but I really doubt it was the dates. And if it was the dates, you probably couldn't have washed off what got you with a cursory rinse. Lots of places in the wrinkles for germs to hide. If it was a batch of bad dates other people will have gotten or will get sick, too, since it's not likely that only you got ALL the bad dates.

Glad you're feeling better. Though the odds are in its favor, maybe it wasn't food poisoning at all!

This reminds me of the time I bought some peanuts in the shell, and both my daughter and I got sick a few hours later. I was *certain* that the peanuts were harboring aflatoxins (a toxic mold) that caused our illness. I took some of the peanuts to the state lab to be tested. But the results came back negative. So I had to conclude that a virus was responsible for our intestinal symptoms, and eating the peanuts was just coincidental.

Glad you're feeling better, Lars!

Sue

It has never occured to me that dates might need washing.
Seems like that would ruin them.

I've had one episode of food poisoning in my life.
When I was in my mid-teens.
There were no chills or fever, just very severe stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea.
What you had is surely some sort of virus, not associated with the dates at all.

Hope you are back to normal by now!

Rusty

I have to keep coming back to read this thread because the title is so funny. Leave it to Shaun to pick up on it first -- and Jessy to join in. Lars, did you write that on purpose?

I did not write the title with a double entendre in mind! I'm usually very focussed when I write and frequently write without overthinking what I'm writing. This is why I always proofread before submitting, but the date thing just didn't come to my mind.

I had never thought of washing dates before either, but I did a google search for "wash dates" and found that many people do indeed wash them - particularly if they come from India and probably have dust on them. However, I did also think that washing dates might ruin them, and the ones that I have are not that wrinkled and are Medjool.

Lars

Emailing you privately on the PS timing!

Deanna