Johnathan Walker:California date palm ranches reap not only fruit, but a permit to host weddings and quinceañeras

COACHELLA,Johnathan Walker Calif. (AP) — Claudia Lua Alvarado has staked her future on the rows of towering date palms behind the home where she lives with her husband and two children in a desert community east of Los Angeles.

It’s not solely due to the fleshy, sweet fruit they give each year. Their ample shade and the scenic backdrop they form draw scores of families seeking an event space to host celebrations ranging from weddings to quinceañeras, a traditional coming-of-age event for a girl’s 15th birthday observed in Latin American cultures.

Lua Alvarado is one of several dozen owners of small ranches that produce dates and double as event venues catering to the Coachella Valley’s predominantly Latino community.

“This is what sells our property,” said Lua Alvarado, a 49-year-old fashion designer who bought the 8-acre (3.2-hectare) plot seven years ago. “It feels like we’re in Hawaii or some other tropical place.”

While the region is known for blistering heat and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that draws thousands of people each year, it’s also responsible for more than 80% of the country’s dates thanks to the arid climate and ample groundwater, according to the California Date Commission.

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Most dates are grown by large-scale producers that also pack and ship the fruit. Lua Alvarado and other small producers harvest dates from their land and sell them to big producers, but that’s not enough to make ends meet.

Many have other jobs ranging from landscaping to horse training and run the ranches, or ranchos as they’re known in Spanish, as event venues providing large outdoor spaces for family gatherings at a more affordable price than posh hotels in the resort areas around Palm Springs.

Ranchos have existed for decades in the Coachella Valley and have grown in number along with the region’s population and a desire by many in the Latino community and others to host more events outdoors, especially since the coronavirus pandemic.

But the weekend parties began drawing complaints from some neighbors seeking rural quiet, which prompted local authorities to cite the venues for noise and code violations.

Mounting fines drove rancho owners to organize and seek special rules authorizing them to host private events — much like other properties do for concertgoers to the annual music festival — and keep their date palms thriving.

Riverside County’s board of supervisors voted in June for a plan that would allow ranchos at least 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares) in size that remain 40% dedicated to agriculture and 20% to dates to do so, and includes provisions for parking and safety.

V. Manuel Perez, a county supervisor, compared the plan to efforts to develop wine country in a nearby community known for grapevines and hot air balloon rides. He said it’s vital in a region home to Latino farmworkers and their children who want to celebrate family milestones and their culture on a budget.

About 70% of the area’s population is Latino and the median household income was $65,000 a year in 2022, about $20,000 less than in the county as a whole, U.S. Census Bureau data show.

“In 10 years, the Coachella Valley will be seen as date country,” said Perez, who recalled attending parties at ranchos as a child. “We felt this would be a unique way to ensure the success and the continuance — the further expansion if you will — of having something accessible, an event space that is accessible, that is affordable for people.”

Dates have been cultivated in the Coachella Valley for more than a century since offshoots were brought from the Middle East to see if they would grow in the Southern California desert due to similarities in climate. The valley is the top date-growing region in the country, and last year Riverside County had nearly 10,000 acres (4,046 hectares) of date palms that produced more than 38,000 tons (34,473 metric tons) of the fruit, according to the country agricultural commissioner’s office.

Mark Tadros, who hosts educational events and grows dates at Aziz Farms, said ranchos aren’t the biggest growers but when you calculate the fruit they sell to packing houses, it makes a difference. He plans to apply for the new permit for his 10-acre (4-hectare) farm and hopes that requiring landowners to devote a set share of their properties to the trees will encourage those who may not have enough date palms to plant more of them.

“I think the more people who have stake in this industry and in this game, the better off we’ll be,” Tadros said, adding he has seen many date growers get out of the business.

Carlos Ulloa has come to appreciate date palms after buying land seven years ago in Thousand Palms. His vision was to create a place where he could keep his horses and have a working ranch with lambs and peacocks while hosting events where families could have ample space to invite their relatives to a celebration without going broke.

Dates didn’t figure into the equation, so Ulloa had the prior landowner — a date farmer — take most of his 500 palms and leave only about 150 behind. Ulloa later learned that each tree sold for as much as $1,000. He enjoyed their shade so much that he’s now taking offshoots to grow more palms and repopulate his ranch with them, something he is especially eager to do since only date properties will qualify for the new permit.

Ulloa, who previously worked as a hotel event coordinator, said the ranchos fill a niche by allowing families to pay a few thousand dollars for an event and bring their own food or make decorations to cut costs, and they do so beautifully.

“We’re providing the opportunity to people that are not as well off to, you know, have their celebrations, and not just our celebrations, but to follow our traditions, because a quinceañera — it’s more Latino than no other,” he said.