What's the most staged fruit on Instagram? What's the California State Fruit? What's a new word in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary? What grows along California's Avocado Highway?

It's popular now, and not just in California. But given in its long culinary history, the avocado and its pulpy incarnation, guacamole, only recently have become darlings of foodies.

This creamy, fatty fruit has been a staple food since prehistoric times -- in its native land of Latin America.

The most popular variety of avocado worldwide is the Hass (rhymes with "pass") Avocado. Rudolph Hass saw a future in avocados. A 25-cents/hour postal carrier, he could not afford to buy avocado trees. So with the help of nurseryman A.R. Rideout, in 1926 he planted seeds on which he intended to graft cuttings from the popular Fuerte avocado.

One little seedling (thought to be from Guatemala) rejected three attempts at grafting. Hass was about to chop down the small tree, but Rideout said it looked healthy enough and to let it grow. (Rideout was into growing seeds from all over Mexico and central America, though he did not keep close track of exactly what seed came from where.) 

The little tree grew so well and fruited so abundantly, it demanded attention, which the Hass children gave it. They loved the rich, nutty taste and creamy texture of its fruit and finally convinced their father to taste it.

That's all it took. Hass patented his variety, although other growers blithely ignored the patent and Hass did not become rich on it.

What Hass did end up with was a legacy of global domination for the Hass Avocado, which now accounts for 80 percent of global production as the worldwide market for avocados continues to grow.

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Robert Flick, the grower of avocados on last week's podcast, supplied us with this interesting link on frozen avocado pulp ("pasta"):

And here is some more info on this important fruit:

Avocados Information by the California Avocado Commission

Smithsonian.com: Why the Avocado Should Have Gone the Way of the Dodo

Gastropod May 7, 2018: The Story of the Avocado: Ripe for Global Domination

NYT Magazine: ON MONEY How the Avocado Became the Fruit of Global Trade

http://www.avocadosource.com/

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources