Dates

Before we arrived in L.A. we stopped at Hadley's Orchard. This is about an hour from L.A. County and I heard about it from my grandparents. My grandma said that my great-grandfather used to stop there when he would pass through on I-10.

I imagined that we would be pulling up to a stand selling only dates that would be by the side of the road, but I was wrong. Instead, it is a large market with so many treats inside. First, in the grocery section there were rows upon rows of sticky sweet dates as well as other dried fruits. You can also find pistachios and several types of nuts. And there was also a wine section that feature local grapes. I wanted to take all these treats home with me, but our car was already very full. I prudently selected only one large container of medjool dates to take with us to our apartment.

As we came up to the cashier we also noticed a cafe section of the market. This was an added bonus because we needed a snack before we got to the ocean. We split an egg salad sandwich and chips. While my favorite egg salad remains to be Abe's Deli in Chicago, which you can read about here, this was a very good sandwich and I wish that we hadn't decided to split our snack!

Hadley's was a great stop and we continued to enjoy it last week by having many of our dates for breakfast. They are so moist and they taste like candy to me. They're perfect by themselves, but some mornings we also paired these with Greek yogurt and slivered almonds. I'm glad that my great-grandpa used to stop here and that my grandma recommended it. I only wish I had been more indulgent and bought more dates...