A Trip Through Shields Date Garden

Carol Shuster

Neil and I, along with our daughter, Ida, were in Indio, California, for three weeks last month. We were there from February 4th to the 25th. It was a time to get away and relax. All of us had a wonderful time. We are ready to go again. During the time we were there they had a Date Festival, and on one of our excursions we visited Shields Date Garden. 

The Shields Date Garden was started in the early 1900s. The trees there are 15 to 90 years old. We learned how dates are grown through a short movie. Though the date palm is a desert plant, it requires as much water as a willow. The natives would say, “A date palm must have its feet in the water and its head in the fires of Heaven.” While they keep their date gardens wringing wet, at least 10 feet deep at all times, rain is their worst enemy.

Another interesting feature about the date palm is that nature made no adequate provision to pollinate the female date bloom. Each bundle of dates is pollinated by hand. Pollination is done during February and March.

After the movie we took a walk through a beautiful garden. Not only did we see the lovely trees and flowers, we also saw sculptures depicting scenes of different parts of Jesus’ Life. (The garden and sculptures are still under construction.) Each sculpture had a plaque with it explaining what it was and a Bible verse. Yes, I did enjoy reading each one. [You can see more pictures online at www.highprairie.us – Ed.]

Some of the sculptures: From His birth. At the temple at the age of twelve. Talking with the teachers and asking questions. They were amazed at His wisdom at such a young age. His baptism at the Jordan River by John the Baptist. His temptation in the wilderness by the devil. He returned after 40 days and started His ministry. He started by calling his twelve disciples who followed Him. Then came the woman at the well and healing the sick. We saw Jesus during the Last Supper breaking bread. Afterwards we saw Him on the cross. Then came the wonderful sculpture of the EMPTY TOMB on Easter morning. We walked inside that tomb. I seemed to hear the angels say He is not here for He is Risen. The last completed large sculpture was of Jesus after the Resurrection. Jesus Lives today.

(select photo for an enlarged view)

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