Haas Avocado

We visited a friend in Bonsall on Monday. That's about 40 miles north and east from San Diego (towards the Mt Palomar ranch where we had a roast lamb feast at Easter). After watching the kids fool around at the pool for awhile, we decided to walk "over the hill" to the trees which even from a distance seemed laden with fruit. They were!

Along the San Luis Rey River valley, hillsides are covered with Avocados -- mostly Haas variety, named after the man who popularized this variety. (not the Haas who Casey recently referred to in the Photography section)

From Wikipedia:

All commercial, fruit-bearing Hass avocado trees have been grown from grafted seedlings propagated from a single tree that was grown from a seed bought by Rudolph Hass in 1926 from A. R. Rideout of Whittier, California. At the time, Rideout was getting seeds from any source he could find, even restaurant food scraps. The cultivar this seed came from is not known and may already have been cross-pollinated when Hass bought it.

In 1926, at his 1.5-acre grove in La Habra Heights, California, Hass planted three seeds he had bought from Rideout, resulting in just one strong seedling. After trying and failing at least twice to graft the seedling with branches from Fuerte avocado trees, Hass thought of cutting it down but a professional grafter named Caulkins told him to leave it. When the tree began bearing odd, bumpy fruit, his children liked the taste. As the tree's yields grew bigger, Hass easily sold what his family didn't eat to co-workers at the post office. The Hass avocado had one of its first commercial successes at the Model Grocery Store in Pasadena, California, where chefs bought the new cultivar's big, nutty-tasting fruit for $1 each, a very high price at the time (equivalent to $15 today).

Hass patented the tree in 1935 and made a contract with Whittier nurseryman Harold Brokaw to grow and sell grafted seedlings propagated from its cuttings. Brokaw then specialized in the Hass and often sold out of grafted seedlings since, unlike the Fuerte, Hass yields are year-round and also more plentiful, with bigger fruit, a longer shelf life and richer flavor owing to higher oil content.

Rudolph Hass carried on as a postman throughout his life and died of a heart attack at Fallbrook Hospital in Fallbrook, California, in 1952, the same year his patent expired and not long after he had established a new 80-acre (320,000 m2) orchard. By the early 21st century the US avocado industry took in over $1 billion a year from the heavy-bearing, high-quality Hass cultivar, accounting for around 80% of all avocados grown worldwide.

Here the marine influence is visible, as cool, moist breezes from the ocean to the west (left in the photo) fill the valley in the afternoon.

My friend only keeps a couple dozen trees irrigated, as a mature tree like his requires about 1500 gallons of water a month! No matter, in just about 10 minutes we had caught our limit of avocados and grapefruit.

They have both yellow and ruby red grapefruit trees.

We tried to escape with 2-3 of each fruit, but he insisted "have a few more".

Guacamole, any one?

Cazalea

PS - our kitchen counter is overflowing

Cazalea

Love Avocados.

By: Bill : June 8th, 2022-20:19

My dear friend Art is continuously supplying with surprise vists from his fam farm.

Family farms are A GOOD THING but sadly becoming rarer

By: cazalea : June 8th, 2022-23:10

My little wilderness patch only has herbs, vegetables, pomegranates, a few grapes and tiny dates. Plus bees, hummingbirds, hawks, owls and such... Luckily the neighbor 5 houses up saw us walking this evening, and loaded us with lemons! Now the kitchen cou...

Food & Wine

Haas Avocado

Haas Avocado

Love Avocados.

Family farms are A GOOD THING but sadly becoming rarer

Interesting post Mike …

Did I hear someone say . . .

Art, I’ve seen your creative guacamole but I need the minimalist extra-purist version

Too many hanged lawyers for me. ( Avocat: Lawyer, in French), avocado in Spanish. ) ;)