An oblong, brown, and a sweet fruit of the date palm tree native to the eastern Mediterranean and in Western Asia. The fruit surrounds a large pit that should be removed for eating, but dates could be purchased with the pit removed. They make an excellent snack and are an ingredient in many desserts and also at savory Middle Eastern dishes.

In botany, a drupe is a variety of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (Exocarp or skin and Mesocarp or flesh) surrounds a shell (the pit or stone) of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and commonly from flowers with superior ovaries. The definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, lignified stone (or pit) derives from the ovary wall of the flower.

Dried fruit is fruit, which has been dried, either in nature or through use of a machine, such as a dehydrator. Raisins, plums or prunes and dates are examples of good dried fruits. Other fruits that could be dried include apples, apricots, bananas, cranberries, figs, mangoes, peaches, pineapples, pear tomatoes and also pears.