Shields Date Gardens
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Shields Date Gardens is a historic date orchard and tourist attraction in Indio, California, USA.
The company was founded in 1924 by Floyd and Bess Shields. Floyd Shields was one of the pioneering date farmers in the still-young date industry of the Coachella Valley. He bred a number of his own hybrids and varieties including the "Blonde" and "Brunette" varieties, grown exclusively at Shields to this day. To help promote the exotic, difficult-to-grow fruit, Shields presented lectures to his customers on the cultivation of the date. The lectures proved to be a popular draw, leading Shields to incorporate a slide show and recorded soundtrack into a multimedia presentation designed to run on a continuous basis. The fifteen-minute presentation, Romance and Sex Life of the Date, modified only slightly over the years, is still shown today in a small theater.
Shields was also the inventor of the Date Crystal®. This is a unique, dry blend of dates for use in cooking, on cold cereals and in date milkshakes. Date shakes and black date ice cream are popular treats sold over the counter at Shields.
The current building, with its Googie sign depicting a knight in armor pointing toward the main entrance off Highway 111 has been in use since 1953. Skyrocketing land values in the area threatened the continued existence of Shields Date Gardens when the property was placed on the market. It was purchased by Oasis Date Gardens in nearby Thermal, who immediately relisted the property with the intention of moving the date orchard operations to their own orchards.
