Is a Jujube a date?

The Orchard has several unusual fruits, the Jujube is one of them. A Jujube has informal names of “red date” and “Chinese Date,” so you might think it’s a date, but it’s not! In it’s most ripened form it resembles a date and that’s probably how it got the nicknames.
The Orchard has a whole row of these interesting fruit trees known as Jujube. The Jujube trees are water-efficient and drought resistant. They require very little water to thrive. The origin of the Jujube tree is in Eastern Asia and can be found in many parts of the world today, including Italy, France, Spain, the Middle East, Australia, and the USA.
It is an attractive tree with green, pointy, oval leaves about three inches long. The bushy Ziziphus jujuba tree can grow to nearly forty feet high!
Our fruit is in the early stages of ripening. The fruit is very unusual. It can be eaten at different stages of ripening. It starts green, and moves to different colors yellow(pale), dark red (maroon) and shriveled red (maroon). They can be eaten at any stage. The shriveled stage is where it is “fully” ripe and it’s the most sweetest. As the fruit turns red the flesh inside begins to sweeten. The texture at this stage is apple-like. As it gets darker the flesh becomes sweeter, and the texture changes to be nougat-like and spongy.
Nutritionally, it is low in calories but rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Jujube fruits are rich in several antioxidant compounds, primarily flavonoids, polysaccharides, and triterpenic acids.
If Juju be coming to Saturday Seva, you will find them at the top of section 5.