Development cycle of nature’s best energy bites

Date palms, one of the oldest cultivated trees in the world, go through a development cycle consisting of five stages before this sweet fruit loaded with natural sugars is ready to be harvested. The first stage, called Hababauk, is where it appears as a small white fruit after one week of pollination. The second stage, namely Kimri, occurs 5 to 17 weeks after pollination and this is the stage where they caught the attention of our photographer Thajudheen at the Doha corniche. At the Kimri stage, the colour and size of the fruit changes and it goes from green, slowly turning into yellow and red. This is followed by the Khalal stage, where the fruit grows longer and turns either fully yellow or red over a period of 18 to 25 weeks. Although the dates are hard at this point but many people like to enjoy them at this stage as well. The highly nutritious dates finally ripen and take their brown colour at Rutab stage in another 5 to 7 weeks. The fifth and final stage is called Tamr, which appears three weeks post the Rutab stages. With less than a month to go before the holy month of Ramadan begins, revel in the beauty of this fascinating fruit that can instantly replenish energy to our bodies with a single bite.