Yummy in my tummy

I guess you could consider our edible landscaping a hobby. We tried to plant a large percentage of fruit trees and edible plants. Right now we have tons of persimmons and the avocados are being picked. We just finished the 100 or so pomegranites.

This year we'll have many less avocados than last year. Last year we got over 200, this year maybe 75. We have the Mexicola variety and can get down to 18 degrees and live. Some years it gets cold damage but, it bounces back. There are some very nice things about living in CA.

 

Sorry Dale, I'll remember next year that you love them. Personally, I don't care for the work involved. But, I can send you a box to keep you busy:> I can't believe they were selling here at stores for over $2 each! Crazy. We were giving them away by the bagload.

Forrest, the Mexicola is a good, colder tolerant variety. I chose it for that reason. There are a few other varities like Fuerte that will take to this area, but others are riskier. We got a light frost this morning, in fact. And many other varieties would really be suffering. The fruit isn't sold commercially from Mexicola as most avocados you see at the grocery store are Guatamalan. These don't turn black like what we see at the stores. They get wrinkled and softer though, and after a couple harvests we know when they're ready by the look and feel. Hubby usually picks one or two every day so we'll constantly have some ripe and ready for salads, sandwiches etc. We pick them and they take usually 2-3 weeks to ripen on the counter. For now we just get to look...

 

Too funny. Yes you did! They're actually best in the late Oct-Nov. period. Dec. is slim pickins and I'm sure you want the good ones!

 

Alexis, these are unusually small this year and we didn't nearly get as many. We've also got about 15 citrus and fruit trees. Though I got borers this year for the first time on 3 which I'm going to have to treat come spring with nasty chemicals. I've avoided doing so up until now:<

80 avocado trees. Amazing. Of course I'd be dead. I'm supposedly allergic to them...so says the allergist. I ignore him though and keep eating. And I keep 2 cats and a dog which I'm allergic to as well, in the house. Fooey on him. Mind over matter.

MJ, I would love to send you a box, but there no way I'm sneaking any of these out. The avocados hubby guards. He's so anal he writes the # and date on them. He wants to beat our record of 2 hundred something.

 

I bet Alexis will have extra boxes galore! I may even need to hit her up in a few years.

 

Alexis, that's great. If I had acreage and the climate I'd pick avocados as a tree crop too. Out of all our fruit trees it is the easiest one to grow. We've never had to spray it with anything and it's never had any pests at all. Once in a while I prune some of the ugly limbs, but other than that it's care free. Now all the other trees- apples, pears, cherries, almonds, nectarines, peaches etc. always need spraying or pruning. And I'm constantly fighting coddling moths, now borers and other pests. Birds too. They ignore the avocado. Our citrus are second on the easy list. They do need a bit more pruning than the avocado and need to be watched for the rare scale attack.

Honestly, I don't know why more people don't grow avocados here. They really give you quite a bit of return for no care.

Are you going to do the farmer's market thing or??

Armando, YUCK. I bet my husband will love it, though so I passed on the link. Thanks:>