People tended avocado trees in Central America 11,000 years ago, and National Avocado Day on Saturday, July 31, 2027, keeps the habit going with guacamole. A postman gave California its leading variety.
Avocado Day Each July
Mark July 31. It’s informal, so the only requirement is a ripe avocado.
Rock Shelters, Mummies and a Mailman
The food day’s founder is unknown. The fruit’s story, by contrast, starts at El Gigante Rockshelter in western Honduras.
Researchers there analyzed more than 1,700 ancient seeds, Archaeology magazine reports. People were tending wild avocado trees about 11,000 years ago, before they grew maize.
Domestication began roughly 7,500 years ago.
From there the fruit traveled. Domesticated seeds from 750 B.C. turned up with mummies in Peru, the California Avocado Commission says, and Mexico shows signs of cultivation by 500 B.C.
Spanish speakers reshaped the Aztec word into aguacate. Sir Henry Sloane gave the fruit its first English-language mention in 1696.
The postman’s tree
Judge Ord of Santa Barbara brought avocado trees from Mexico to California in 1871.
In the late 1920s, mail carrier Rudolph Hass planted a seedling from a seed he bought in Whittier. The seller, Rideout, often planted seeds along streets and in neighbors’ yards.
At first, Hass planned to graft another variety onto the tree growing in his orchard. The grafts kept failing, so he meant to cut it down. His children liked its fruit better than Fuerte and talked him out of it.
He patented the tree in 1935 and teamed up with Harold Brokaw, a Whittier nurseryman, to grow and sell it. Hass kept 25 percent of the income, and Brokaw took 75 percent.
Success came slowly. In the 1950s, California shipped about 25 varieties, and Fuerte made up more than two-thirds of the crop. The Hass pulled ahead only in the late 1970s.
Rudolph Hass didn’t live to see it. His patent expired in 1952, the year he died. The original “Mother Tree” in La Habra Heights died of root rot in 2002, at about 76 years old. Brokaw’s nephew, Hank, had cared for it for more than a decade.
America’s Avocado Habit
Each American had about 1.52 pounds of avocados available in 1998. By 2023, the projection was 9.22 pounds, roughly sixfold, University of Florida researchers report.
Mexico supplies most of them. Its share of U.S. shipments climbed from 45% in 2010 to 81% in 2023.
California grows about 88% of the domestic crop, mostly Hass, while Florida grows 12% and Hawaii less than 1%.
Hass now accounts for about 80 percent of avocados eaten worldwide, the commission says. Its offspring make up 95 percent of California’s crop.
California’s roughly 3,000 growers harvest about 50,000 acres from Monterey to San Diego. Ventura and San Diego counties lead the state.
Picking and Ripening for National Avocado Day
- Squeeze gently: a ripe avocado gives slightly when pressed in your palm.
- Use your palm: pressing with fingertips can bruise the fruit.
- Speed it up: put a firm avocado in a paper bag with an apple or kiwifruit.
- Chill only ripe ones: the fridge slows ripening, so keep hard avocados out.
- Skip the microwave: heat may soften an avocado, but it won’t taste ripe.
- Try Florida fruit: look for green-skinned varieties from Miami-Dade County.
- Make guacamole: mash ripe avocados with lime and salt.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the California Avocado Commission created?
In 1978, around the time the Hass overtook Fuerte.
Where did avocados originate?
South-central Mexico, between 7,000 and 5,000 B.C., by the commission’s timeline.
How much fruit does one tree produce?
Up to 200 pounds a year, though about 60 pounds is typical.