The very first Hass Avocado tree is still standing at the home formerly owned by Rudolph Hass in La Habra, California.

AVOCADOS (Monday, July 7): All week, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man looks at the beautiful, finicky Avocado. He starts with a little history lesson. The Aztec, Inca and Mayan Indians of Central and South America were the first to cultivate this fruit. The first mention of the fruit came in 1519 when the Spanish Conquistadors were in Mexico City. They wrote of this “butter fruit that grows on trees.” The first planting of Avocados in the United States was in Florida. California began growing some around the 1900s, but in 1913, the great California freeze hit and literally destroyed every experimental avocado tree that was growing, except one variety. That variety was renamed “Fuerte,” which is Spanish for “strong.” Up until the 1980s, the Fuerte accounted for about half of all the avocados grown in California. In the 1920s, a postman with the US Post Office in La Habre, California, purchased three avocado trees. His two sons both agreed that one of those trees produced the best avocado they had ever eaten. Rudolph began propagating this one tree, which now accounts for about 92% of all the avocados grown in California. The avocado was named after Rudolph … Rudolph “Hass.” By the way, Rudolph pronounced his name as in “pass.” The Hass avocado is by far the best tasting avocado in the world, because of its high oil content. Other varieties may have oil content around 15%, but the Hass, during this time of year, the peak of the season, will have over 30% oil. Oil means flavor. Oil, however, does not mean fat. Many people think of Avocado, they think fat. The only thing the avocado is fat in, is in nutrition! The Avocado has 60% more potassium than even a banana. It’s absolutely loaded with Vitamin E. For pregnant women, or women wanting to get pregnant, you have got to look at the Avocado as a very tasty prenatal pill for Folate. There is more Folate in an Avocado than any other fruit or vegetable, and Folate is known to help reduce birth defects. The Avocado is also loaded with powerful anti-oxidants that help reduce your risk to many types of cancer. And the fat you are so scared of, it’s actually monosaturated fat. That’s the fat that helps lower your bad cholesterol and raise your good cholesterol. So, if there is good fat, Avocado is very good fat.

Annual Avocado Availability Chart

AVOCADOS (Tuesday, July 8): Our first recipe of the week was an Avocado Fruit Stand Salad recipe, which can easily be turned into an entrée salad simply by adding some smoked turkey, chicken or maybe some shrimp. It uses the healthiest fruit on earth, the Kiwifruit, a great citrus flavor of the Red Grapefruit, and super summer Strawberries. A couple of things to remember about this salad: First the lettuce salad. Even if you use a packaged salad, make sure you tear the lettuce into bite-size pieces. Nothing worse than getting a plate of salad that you have to end up cutting. Also, when you mix this salad, be sure to use your hands, not a spoon or tongs. By using your hands, you can more easily and gently mix the fruit in the salad. Also, the last item added before the dressing, are the avocados.

The “Butter Fruit” that grows on a tree.

AVOCADOS (Wednesday, July 9): Get out the flour tortilla wraps today. Not the little 6” ones, but the giant ones, 10” or 12” ones. Oh, the mixture that goes in the wrap is so simple. Diced up roasted chicken, some mayonnaise (and there is so much flavor in this, you can get away using the “lite” mayo), some chile garlic sauce (which you can find in the Asian food isle with other sauces), fresh basil and fresh lime juice. Right on top of this mixture, once you get it onto the wrap, sprinkle some chopped cashews, several slices of avocado and a slice of red leaf lettuce. Are you hungry yet? Then roll up your wrap, tucking in the sides just before the last roll. Now wrap it nicely in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This helps all the ingredients to solidify a bit. Now you can bring it out and slice it for an appetizer or lunch.

AVOCADOS (Thursday, July 10): This next avocado recipe is a fusion of east/west and inspired by Rick Rosenfield who began California Pizza Kitchen. Recently, he opened a new restaurant with Larry Flax. LA Foodshow is a hot restaurant in Manhattan Beach, California. This recipe is also a wrap, but with egg roll wraps instead. Here we go. Cube these four ingredients: Roasted chicken, pepper jack cheese, roma tomatoes and avocados. Mix the ingredients and then roll a small amount into each egg roll. Now cook your egg roll as instructed on the package. A dipping sauce would be great here. You can use Ranch Dressing, but a Sweet and Sour sauce, or a sweet Asian sauce would be great.

AVOCADOS (Friday, July 11): Our final recipe of the week is a mixture of Guacamole and Salsa. We call it AvoSalsa. The ingredients include avocados, dice tomatoes, chopped cilantro, diced jalapeno peppers, minced garlic, chopped red onions, fresh lime juice, ground cumin, salt and pepper. The instructions for this recipe are very difficult. Are you ready for this? Here it is: In a medium mixing bowl, mix all ingredients. Don’t worry, you don’t need an engineering degree to figure this one out. Grab some tortilla hips, or make a batch on nachos, or grill a salmon. This AvoSalsa would be great for all of them.

HOW TO PROPERLY CUT YOUR HASS AVOCADO With a sharp knife, cut through the flesh, to the pit, all the way around. Twist the two halves apart. Take a spoon and scoop out the pit. Whacking the pit with a large knife and then twisting does well too, but don’t whack your hand. Take a spoon and carefully slip it between the fruit and the peel. Then you can easily take out the fruit.

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