Our Story
Sun Joules is a small family-owned and family-operated farm in Mecca, California, right in the heart of the Coachella Valley. Though this small business is in its beginning stages, the dream started back in 1987. This is when our father Manuel, a hard-working and driven 22-year-old, promised himself that his small family, a young wife, and new daughter, would one day own their very own organic self-sustained farm. Equipped with no more than a second-grade education and a few hundred dollars to his name, the odds were stacked against him. But after ten years of dedicated effort, and a focused mindset, our small family was able to save enough money for a down payment on 20 acres of barren land. And this is how, in 1997, the dream was launched.
Growing with Salt Water
This farm has been organic since the beginning, when the only thing on the land was desert bushes and cactus. Although the soil is rich and fertile the only available water is well water, which unfortunately has a very high concentration of salt. This high salt concentration makes growing anything almost impossible. Palm trees are very resilient trees, but the problem with salt water is that apart from stunting our trees' growth it also makes the branches on which the dates grow very weak. When the bunch gets too heavy the branch bends thereby stopping the water from reaching the fruit and eventually killing it before it gets a chance to fully ripen. It took us many years of trial and error to figure out exactly what our dates needed. We tried so many different fertilizers, irrigation methods, tying and pruning methods, we often worried we would never get a substantial crop big enough to take to market. But due to the palm tree’s natural resilience, and our father’s determination and unwillingness to give up and see his dream come true, these strong trees were eventually able to adapt to their harsh growing conditions and slowly began to thrive. Knowing the importance of growing food organically, we decided to accept the fact that our trees would take longer to grow, and our fruit would be smaller, but they would also be healthier and tastier. We believe in our farm, and we believe that the taste of our medjool dates just can’t be beat.
From our Family to Yours.
Over the years, our small family has grown, adding two more daughters, a son, two son in-laws and two grandchildren. We have made it our life’s mission to see our father’s once humble dream become a reality. Not only do we want that dream for ourselves, but we also want to share what we’ve so lovingly cultivated with the rest of the world. We want the world to delight in the flavor of the best tasting, highest quality, organic Medjool dates produced in the Coachella Valley.
We want to introduce Sun Joules to the world. Known as a natural energy booster, our dates will provide all the energy you need to FUEL YOUR FUN!