Reference for Bava Metzia 177:12
אלא אמר רבינא כרוך ותני דיש מה דיש מיוחד דבר שלא נגמר מלאכתו למעשר ולחלה ופועל אוכל בו אף כל שלא נגמר מלאכתו למעשר ולחלה פועל אוכל בו
Another [Baraitha] taught: 'Threshing': just as threshing is peculiar as being a process which does not complete its work [to render it liable] to tithes, and the labourer may eat thereof; so also during everything which does not complete the work [to subject it] to tithes, the labourer may eat. Hence separating dates and dried figs [sticking together] is excluded: since its work is finished in respect of tithes, the worker may not eat. But has it not been taught: When separating dates and dried figs, the worker may partake thereof? — R. Papa replied: That refers to half-ripe dates.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., a kind of date and fig which does not fully ripen on the tree but only in the house. The 'separating' spoken of here means before they have ripened in the house, and so are not finished in respect of tithes. ');"><sup>10</sup></span>