It took me until the second paragraph to realize you weren’t writing gibberish. You had me worried for a moment!

I'm visiting and cooking for my parents this week. Long brunches starting around noon 'till around 4pm. Including some meal prep for their freezer. I finished yesterdays visit serving a small sweet snack of dates and chocolate. They both love dates.

Misfits marketplace had them last week. They were 3.99 for a pound. Amazon 7$ a pound same brand.

I use them in baking and sometimes a snack.

-cute packaging on the 'Ugglies'.

I'm planning to make them some energy bites using some dates like one of these, HERE

LOL! FOAS, you obviously don't know dates. ;) They originate in North Africa, but deglet noor, which have been grown here for 100 years, are supposed to be the most popular variety. Noor in Arabic means "light", and I've read that deglet means date palm or date, but I'm not sure. There are a bunch of not so mutually comprehensible dialects of Arabic, and different words for fresh dates, etc. I think medjool is just a name, but again, am not sure. But in the language of American groceries, they're standards, like winesap and Hass.

S, that's a very good price for dates. I've made bars similar to your bites. There was a blog which had a great formula. I'll see if I can find it when I’m at my computer..

I'm limited in my ingredients but did bring choices. All ears for the future. If I make them I'll post results.

Bahri dates are my favorite, but they are only available during part of the year. Fortunately right now I am close to Indio and the date orchards, and so I can go to several stores and stands that sell practically nothing but dates. I need to check out the farmers' markets here also.

I found the original source for the formula, though the image is all over Pinterest and others. S, I'm sure you don't need this, but it's handy. :)

https://pomegranatebandit.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/formula-for-protein-bars-or-energy-ba/

When we visited Iran a couple of years ago there were entire shops which sold only dates. To us they all looked pretty similar but they were clearly a very important and complex subject. There were piles of superficially identical fruit with vastly differing prices and dates packed in fancy gift boxes to be offered like expensive chocolates. Here we get a small range but medjools are a favourite. They’re basically delicious toffees in fruit form.

I did find dates on my recent trip to Mediterranean Island, but they were a bit larger package than I needed:

Now I wish I had looked closer at the different types....

Annie