I had no idea that hey were so labour intensive before harvest. I love dates and I'm eating some right now, bought a 2 pound box of "Parnoosh" dates yesterday.:-)
The tree the date fruit grows on looks like phoenix palm tree, which I happen to have a big one at my garden, and which annoys me very much because it has big horns and every year produces lots of dried leaves that become debris and rubbish in the garden. I wonder if the date tree is the phoenix palm tree.