Dried Fruit - What fruit are dates?

[Julio69]

We were talking in the office about raisins being dried grapes and wandered what fruit prunes and dates are before they are dried.

[pauln90]

Prunes are dried plums

Dates are the fruit of a date palm

[BBWCHATT]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_Palm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prune_%28fruit%29

[nickmo]

And just to expand - currants are not the same as raisins but are currants from the currant bush (Ribes genus - hence 'Ribena' drink...) but raisins are dried grapes. Unless in the US where currants are used as an ingredient when they mean raisins.....Sultanas are also dried grapes but a different variety and though the original grape came from Turkey in the past, a lot of sultanas we buy are treated normal seedless grapes that have been 'plumped' for a more golden look and are often given a shot of sulphur dioxide to lighten or 'golden' them up according to the demands of the supermarkets / buyers as they think the public want these extra treatments to our food......

For a holiday treat in the south of Spain, why not pop along the 'Route of the Raisin' in the season (August) when you can see all the raisins being sun dried and turning the dark colour as they dry out on the hillside.....

As above though, prunes are plums and dates are from date palms - nothing like a relation to any of the above plants.

[Gef]

Currants (in the UK) are also dried grapes. nickmo is refering to red or blackcurrants.