Today we revisited one of our favorite places in Palm Springs, Shield’s date farm. This time around we were very struck at how finnicky date trees are how incredibly difficult it is to raise fruit from them. First of all, they can’t pollinate themselves, so humans have to manually collect pollen from male tress and brush them onto the female trees. You’d think that would be easy, but these trees grow insanely tall, so people have to climb large ladders, and the trees put out spiney thorns that are very painful for the people trying to work on the trees. Then, they can only live in dry, arid deserts, but they require an enormous amount of water. So Shield’s periodically floods the date farm so the trees can get enough water. And although they love water for their roots, they are basically allergic to rain, so the workers put rain coverings over the date fruits when it rains. It’s pretty amazing what all has to be done for these dates to come to the market, and they are so so delicious!
After the date farm, we went to tour the windmill farm in Palm Springs. I think the correct term is wind turbine. We learned a lot on our driving audio tour:
- Denmark for a long time has made the best wind turbines (by a long shot), but the US and other countries like Sweden are starting to catch up.
- Wind power had a very rocky start. Early turbines broke easily and had a lot of problems.
- Wind turbine size is limited to what is allowed to be transported on highways. The future of wind turbines is having them in the ocean. There are already some and they are HUGE.
- Wind and solar are about the same efficiency to make. Coal burning produces WAY more power per area it takes, but obviously has very negative consequences for the environment.
Back at home we had fun in the pool. I enjoyed doing some fun tricks with the kids where they would stand up on my shoulders.
Also, Lily has still been enjoying veggie Pho from a nearby restaurant and it feels great as she is still sick, and she and I have also been playing a lot of wingspan, which we love so much!