New Crop?

So many of us in Fallbrook are facing difficult decisions regarding our avocado trees because of high water costs. Many of us have cut our groves down, stopped watering or changed over to other crops. We see vineyards, wax flowers and Meyer lemons appearing where avocado trees once thrived.  

Some of our most practical farmers are considering an old-but-new tree crop which rarely gets much press. The trees thrive on slopes where there's good drainage; they require about the amount of rainfall as we get here in Fallbrook and the market for the product is robust. Because the trees are kept fairly short, no tall ladders are required for picking.

As you can see these busy ladies haven't even removed their aprons as they only have to hop a few steps and the picking is easy. (Pardon the poor quality photos but these growers do not yet have a Commission through which they can collect dues and produce better quality media.)

Even from the ground, this crop picks easily...no special cutters required - just gently tug and the product is ready to dry. In Fallbrook, we have exactly the right amount of sunshine to achieve the optimum dry weight per pound for economical shipping.

The product, while somewhat fragile, ships well and has a decent shelf life. Although there's little cache at the current time involved with farming this crop, the cash register will ring -  and just wait until a Commission is formed and some do re mi is spent on romance.  Watch this informative video:

italian harvest

If you decide to convert your grove to half and half: half avocados and half planted with  new trees you could promote them both by creating interest new uses such as: 

Spaghetti and avocado pesto - photo from deliciousmagazineco.uk