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Page 19 August 2011 Arcadia resident Erica Schlather harvests fruit from Black Sphinx Date Palm trees in her yard and neighborhood. The fruit trees are endangered by urban sprawl that has brought houses and groves in contact, causing a hazard to power lines. Residents and Salt River Project continue talks on how to save as many trees as possible. At least one in Arcadia has already been removed. Photos by Elias Tolano. Arcadia woman harvests historic Black Sphinx dates By Elias Tolono Look for the cherry picker. Avid gardener and plant lover Erica Schlather has a passion for preserving one of the Valley’s most rare and historic crops in her own Mountgrove neighborhood, where 400 date palm trees remain from the thousands that stood in the area 70 years ago. Schlather has been harvesting Black Sphinx dates for several years with the guidance of “datilero” Harry Polk, a sharecropper who has been tending to the trees since the 1980s. Schlather harvests a few trees in her yard and around the neighborhood, and sells a pound of the dates for $7 from her home or at the Phoenix Public Market. The moist, sweet fruit, which is only available a few months of the year, is also sold to wholesalers like Whole Foods Market. The dates won’t ripen and be ready to eat until October, but harvesting takes months of preparation. Date palms are unique in that they are either male or female trees, Schlather said. Only the males produce pollen in their sheaths so the females must be hand- pollinated because birds and bees are not attracted to them. Pollination of course comes after the thorns on the date fronds are removed. The 5-inch thorns can pierce through a car tire and release a chemical irritant. Schlather said she has been pricked countless times and the chemical causes her hands to swell the next day. When the fruit is produced it must be trimmed, wrapped and then bagged into bunches to protect it from birds and insects. In early October, the rapidly ripening dates are ready to harvest, but still continue to ferment, so Schlather said she freezes the fruit to prevent spoiling. The dark, creamy dates can then be eaten alone, stuffed with cheese or used as a glaze for chicken. As legend has it, 23 varieties of date palms were brought to the Valley from Arabia in 1917. In the 1920s, a hybrid seedling that produced a soft black date with a sweet taste was discovered. This became the Black Sphinx Date Palm, and by 1931 there were about 150 of these trees. Two years later that number multiplied to 6,000. Suburban sprawl continues to be a menace for the trees. Fifty- fi ve of the palms in Mountgrove have grown too close to power lines and are in danger of being removed. Meetings between residents and of fi cials with Salt River Project are ongoing. The last meeting was July 11 and although offers of tree relocation and more frequent professional trimming have been made, SRP has not budged on removing palms that present an “immediate safety hazard” because of their proximity to power lines. Schlather said one resident has already had a tree removed. “It was a sad day,” she said.