Over 1 million palm trees
Egypt has the largest number of palm trees worldwide. The trees, estimated at over 1 million, can be found in every village, town, farm and yard. They adorn the shores of the river canals and mark the desert oasis with their elegantly tall trunks and thick fronds.
...and more than 20 date varieties!
To the inexperienced eye, all palm tree silhouettes look the same. Yet, the wood pattern, the shape of the frond leaves, the date color, and even the texture of the palm fibers have such incredible diversity. This makes date tasting in Egypt an intriguing activity for food lovers with a sweet tooth.
Harvesting dates (2019-09-25) by NawayaNawaya
The magic of Agwa dates
Agwa is made from Siwi dates, which are sun dried and pressed into a paste that can be stored until the next harvest season. Agwa is a staple in Egyptian bakeries that serve date stuffed cakes and cookies.
Cookies stuffed with agwa (pressed date paste) and sesame (2020-10-26) by NawayaNawaya
Sweet energy boost
Small scale bakeries across the country, sell pastries filled with dates. They come in diverse shapes and sizes and truly loved for the sweet energy boost they provide!
Badrashin: home of Agwa
The villages in Badrashin in Gizah are renowned for their production in mass quantities of Agwa. Around September, villages bustle with harvest and processing activities, and are fully immersed in the actions of the peak of the date season.
Clilmbing the date palm to get a snack (2020-08-25) by NawayaNawaya
200 kilos
The fruiting palms have beautiful, heavy, and hanging date bunches bursting with a variety of colors, from bright yellow, red, purple to dark brown. Some palm varieties carry over 200 kg of dates.
Harvesting hayani dates (2020-09-11) by NawayaNawaya
Meet the farmers
Small holding farmers and their families dry and press the dates in their seasonal manshar - an area they set aside by a protective wall of dried corn stalks. For almost two months each year, palm groves farms are turned into small scale processing operations.
Harvesting dates (2019-09-25) by NawayaNawaya
Climbing the palm trees
The colorful dates on the palm fronds above are harvested by the skillful palm climbers, who ascend the tall trees using a rope support. Dates ripen at different rates, so farmers can harvest a single tree up to 3 times.
Harvesting dates (2019-09-25) by NawayaNawaya
Catch me if you can!
By gently shaking the fruit bunches, ripe dates will fall into the harvest basket.
Harvest dates (2019-09-25) by NawayaNawaya
Separating the dates
After harvest dates are carefully separated by color depending on their ripening stage.
Agwa manshar - drying area for siwi dates (2019-09-25) by NawayaNawaya
Drying the dates
Then the dates are laid on the ground forming a giant carpet of patchwork dates in the drying area.The families set up camp in their date groves during harvest season to ensure that the drying dates aren't stolen or eaten by roaming animals.
Pressing dates with your bare feet
This pressing method has stood the test of time; it is energy efficient and low cost, using only human body weight to compress all the air out of the dried dates to store year round as a date paste.
Harvesting dates (2019-09-25) by NawayaNawaya
Fresh dates
Most date varieties in Egypt cannot be dried and have to be eaten fresh. They are delicious, but hectic for small scale farmers to quickly market and sell, accepting very cheap prices for the perishable dates. Siwi dates made into agwa are lucrative and provide a reliable cashflow for small scale farming families to sell their Agwa throughout the year.
Curator: Laura Tabet
Research: Laura Tabet
Photography: Yahya Ahmed, Nawaya
