A Field Trip to an Avocado Farm

When I met Mimi Holtz at the BlogHer conference last year and she told me that her family owned an avocado farm, I was fascinated. First, I had never thought much about where the avocados I buy at the grocery store come from, or that there would be such a thing as an avocado farm. But of course that’s silly; avocados have to come from somewhere and it makes perfect sense that they would come from southern California, where the Holtz family farm is located.

I also had no idea that there were different varieties of avocados (three that they grow on the Holtz farm), or that avocados won’t ripen until after they are picked (unlike the apples from the farms here in the Northeast).

The only avocados I had ever bought were from the grocery store until I started buying from California Avocados Direct. There is a night and day difference between the avocados that now get delivered to my door and the one’s I used to buy. Mimi sliced some avocado up for us, and it was oh so good!

Touring an avocado farm is not something most of us get to do every day, so I was thrilled when Mimi invited us for a private tour while were on vacation in Southern California. I wanted the whole scoop on avocados.

The view from the farm was breath taking!

And the avocados were plentiful. Did you know that avocados hang from long stems off sometimes very large trees?

Here’s a shot of a baby avocado. This one will grow up for next year’s harvest:

The best part of the tour was learning how to use an avocado picker. Each of us took a turn:

Mimi showed us how, then Pat took a turn.

 I gave it a try, and Kevin looked like an expert!

And we went home with freshly picked avocados. Avocados need about ten days to ripen (off the tree) before they are ready to eat. Any day now they will be ready to eat!