My mother was a child during WW2. She lived in Californian where her mother and father worked at the ship yards as welders. They had a cousin who had a house that had an avacado tree in the yard. They all enjoyed the avacados as a substitute for butter to spread on toast, etc.
@@shaolinfox30 My grandmother both welded and riveted at McClellan Air Field in WW II. The work was final assembly of fighter planes bound for the Pacific. Both her daughters were teachers.
@@shaolinfox30My wife and I had a friend who was a welder in the shipyard in Richmond, California during WW 2. She was a true “Rosie the Riviter”. A very sweet woman. She passed away two years ago. She’s was 97.
The original Haas avocado tree was along West road in La habra Heights. After it died, it's stump remained there for some time. A long time family friend carved some wooden bowls from it. One has been on display at the La Habra historical museum. Growing up in the heights, I used to drive by that tree in the early 1980s. Our house was on a 1.7 acre lot of predominantly avocado trees. The year I was born, my father purchased four acres of avocado trees as an investment. He cultivated the trees and sold them to a local packing house and use them for barter. The history guys videos are awesome! Thank you for your research!
I specialized in grafting avocado trees at a nursery here in NZ. I got to graft some trees using sign wood that was flown over from California. We grew the trees in quarantine for few years then planted them out and used them to gather sign wood from to produce more trees of those particular varieties. I was just the grafter and not the guy that paid for it all .....but I think it's quite cool , in a very small way I helped to bring more prosperity to my country and had a part in building, and in the history of my country. In a hundred years something I did will still be providing for NZers. That's kinda what everyone wants to be able to say at the ending of their lives isn't it ? You left something and did something for the next generations
I'm in Auckland and love avocados, especially at this time of year when they're so affordable. Thank you for the early work you did on multiplying this marvelous crop... hearing your story I'll celebrate you when I next cut an avocado open 👍👍👍
@NoahSpurrier I grow a few natives as well as different fruit and nut trees that I usually give away to people. I like growing things that our native birds can feed on and I try to get people plant more natives in their home gardens for that reason.
@DS.proudkiwi no matter where on the planet, natives are massively important. Props to you for that, and your work with avocados! You should be proud, I'd be proud to have taken part in something like that, even a small one ❤
@@NVRAMboiall about the "attitude of gratitude!" I grew up in California with tons of fruit trees but then had to move to Alaska. It was a hard thing to leave the cherry , pears and grapes. After a while, I discovered how many types of berry grow wild here and began picking tons of them, my family now makes some incredible wild berry jam every fall and it's replaced store bought! I also have a rhubarb plant that produces huge stalks every summer, despite never being watered or given fertilizer. It's even been run down with a snow plow several times and I split it's taproot and made two plants out of it. Both grow like a weed to this very day!
I grew up in Southern California. We had four avocado trees in our yard. As a child in the 1970s, we sold avocados at 4 for $1 on a street corner in the residential neighborhood. Now look at the prices. lol.
Back in the 70s and 80s we had 2 very large avocado trees in our backyard. They produced so much fruit our family couldn't eat a fraction of them so we always ended up giving them away, to friends and neighbors, by the grocery bag. One tree finally died when it split from the weight of all the fruit.
50+ varieties tested on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in the 1950s. Some are so delicate, they cannot be shipped with skin like paper. Some are so big, they rival grapefruit. Long necks, hooked necks, small seed, large seed…. We call them pear trees and they are even wild. Some old trees, and many yard trees are wild hybrids. Always great to be home during avocado season.
I live in Mexico and have my avocado tree, of the Hass variety, in my garden. The Hass is a dark brown/almost purple skin and a creamy, almost oily, yellow pulp. We eat them as guacamole, just as a snack or in salads. Never on a sandwich. We don't buy them in supermarkets, as everybody squeezes them to check their ripeness and turning the pulp black. They go for about 1.50 dollars/kg. (5-6 avocados). Prices vary widely from 1.00-10.00/kg.
Your story reminded me of an encounter I recently had in the Publix. A woman in front of me, was squeezing not just a few, but literally almost the entire display. Which is disgustingly entitled, but then she started sneezing on them and her hands. I said some politically incorrect words and she left like a Karen. So I got the produce manager and explained the situation. One because it was distasteful, and I also didn't want police interference on me. They pulled them all a rewashed every one. I wasn't popular with the high school age employees for a couple of weeks. Long-story-short there is NO need to squeeze them.
@@jonthinks6238 it's impossible to know which side (most probably both) were acting like typical WASPs (arrogant and insensitive). What I can say is: OF COURSE fruit MUST BE squeezed. But it must be done in a VERY gently and subtle way, to the limit of tact, which permits to feel the fruit without damaging it. Why MUST BE? Because, unlike Europeans, cultured people only consume well matured fruit, and the only way to know if fruit is ready, is using the senses, specially tact.
@@jonthinks6238 If you asked ALL fruits to be washed instead of YOU washing the ones you bought, you behave like WASP so you're WASP for any practical purpose. But I can withdraw that and change it to "acting like typical Europeans". I bet you understood I'm not approving her behavior, you just need an excuse to avoid the main subject of food culture.
Avadados have been on my plate in one form or another for more than 60 years. I never knew the history of them other than what my mama told me which was it was from Mexico. Im glad to know that one of my favorite foods has such a rich history.
Grew up in the Santa Barbara area. You could always tell the Tourists. They were the Only ones at the grocery stores BUYING Avocados and Lemons. It was a sign that you didn't know Anybody, since Nearly Everyone had them in the backyard. And if You didn't, You knew someone who did. Nobody who knew Anybody Bought Avocados or Lemons, ..... or Oranges either.
@@brucepoole8552Lol according to old lifelong Fallbrook locals, that's why they became the avocado capital. Because they were hiding the marijuana as far back as the 70s 🤣
Growing up in Southern California, there were avocado trees growing in people's back yards, often hanging over the fence, offering their fruits to passersby.
The seed that Haas purchased came from the town that I lived in for 15 years, Whittier. The mother tree was grown the next town over, La Habra Heights. Tho the mother Haas tree died a couple of decades ago, I used to drive by the location where it grew almost every day on my way to work. I had four avo trees in my Whittier backyard, all of different varieties. Sure do miss that!
My wife's family lived just down slope from the guy who discovered the Base avocado, The address was in Whitter, but the next street over was La Habra. Her aunt purchased one of the first Hass avocado trees offered for sell. Her home was in Whitter. That avocado grew in to a very large tree and was very productive. We were never without free avocado s that were very good.
@@newatthis50 There was an unknown variety that produced big tasty avos. I used to pick up about 8 a day in good seasons. I used to give them away! The squirrels would always get some, so when the tree was producing I would leave peanuts out for the squirrels so they would leave the avos alone. Of commercial varieties, Hass rules!
I remember trying avocado for the first time as a kid and being very confused by the taste and texture. My great-grandma had brought them from Hawaii, where my grandma grew up eating them. A very unique and delicious gift of nature! Great video, THG!
If those first people to cultivate the plant didn't create the other varieties 7000 years ago we wouldn't even have the ones that weren't mostly a seed. need to thank them every time you eat a avocado. nature just gave us a giant seed with no meat : P
I'm eating some avocado every day now with my salads. I ate them as a kid in the 70s, my Mom showed me how to make one sprout with toothpicks stuck in its sides so that half of the seed rests in the bottom of a glass of water, while the top is out of the water. Anyone else ever do that? Thanks for the delicious avocado history!
Very informative! I developed a taste for avocado just about ten years ago. Now I'm grateful that my mother has a tree in her back garden. Looking forward to this year's crop!
The First parent Haas avocado 🥑 was just around the corner from my grandparents house. I still remember the plaque and all the tags on it to show where mother stock was taken from the tree 🥑
Born and raised in California, I’ve been eating them for 70 years long before they became a fad. When I lived in Santa Barbara there was one tree on each side of the house.
The Indonesian avocados we are familiar with here in South East Asia look nothing like the Hass avocados, and thanks to your enlightening video I now realise we have been eating and drinking the Fuerte avocado variety!
Although he didn't go into the genetics, there are 3 categories, perhaps separate species: West Indian (big, smooth, popular in South Florida before the Redbay Ambrosia Beetle began wiping out all avocados/laurels), Central American, and Mexican (a highland species popular for its better frost tolerance, smaller & bumpier fruit, also the only on with nontoxic foliage, used for teas or as a substitute for bay leaves but more anise flavored). I suspect that in a fully tropical area like Indonesia, the West Indian and Central American types would be more popular.
i learned to love avacados in the early 1960s thanks to my mother who would give me half an avacado with salad dressing where the pit used to be. Interestingly, she learned to love it in San Francisco with Green Goddess dressing in the 1930s. I have at least three avacados each week. Love them.
I spent decades in horticulture, and, seriously, I know much about avocados and raising the tree. Hass avocados are definitely, from an objective and scientific perspective, superior to many other varieties of avocado. This can happen spontaneously in the biology of plants; many horticultural varieties occur by natural genetic accidents of coincidence. The Fuerte avocado might seem to be misnamed if you're acquainted with the taste of various avocados, since Fuerte avocados are actually much milder in flavor than Hass. Fuerte is a smooth-skinned more delicate fruit containing mild, less oily, less rich fruit. A marvelous treatment of the subject, Sir!
Back in the 50's our house in LA had two big avocado trees. I don't recall my folks eating them and me and my friends would use the hard ones as hand grenades when we played war.
I love avocados (paltas or aguacates) in any form. My favorite is added to Mexican shrimp cocktail, but just scooped out of its skin with salt and pepper sprinkled on is great as well. I learned more in this video than I learned in my 74 years of living. Good learning experiences here on this channel.
We had an avocado tree when I was a kid in the 1950's. I would eat peanut butter and avocado sandwiches - because bananas cost money and avocadoes were free.
I lived in Southern California from 1973 through 1979. Avocados were so popular then we could buy up to 15 avocados for $1.00 at most of the roadside stands. They were abundant and delicious. Today’s prices are exorbitant for just 1 avocado!
@@abrahamdraper1911 Oh, the seed grown trees will have fruit but it won't be the same as the fruit the seed came from. This is true of the majority of fruit trees.
They also require enormous amounts of water to grow, and since water supplies are being purchased by and diverted for the benefit of Big Ag, we can expect domestically produced avocados to become even more expensive while our public water supplies are being subject to higher cost and possible rationing. As groundwater supplies are depleted, homeowners' wells may go dry.
As a graduate of the University of California, Riverside, (home of the Citrus Experiment Station that introduced the naval orange to the world) I think you have understated the contribution our researchers have made to the avocado and its culture. Expect the 'Luna' variety to soon replace the Hass. It was awarded one of Time magazine's best inventions of 2023. Smaller tree, larger yield.
A classic Guacomole dip, perhaps from San Diego CA. in the 1970s. 1 avocado peeled, pitted and mashed with a fork. mix with 2 teaspoons lemmon juice, 1/4 cup mayo, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. chill overnight and serve with your favorite chips. To me this taste better than the more modern versions.
Would you allow Mexicans to call classic the apple pie with chili? Classic guacamole is Mexican, not Taco Bell guacamole. Guacamole doesn't go with garlic but goes with GENEROUS amounts of coriander
since the early 1960s my parents and then I started making avocado dip to a recipe that may have been created by the Frito corn chip company here in Texas. You mash up your avocado when it's ripe and just write, and mix it with an equal amount of small curd cottage cheese a little bit of lemon juice and a sprinkle of Lawery's seasoned salt. And then enjoy it with corn chips. A true cold war treat.
"You mash up your avocado when it's ripe" Do you mean it's common Europeans eat hard, apple-grade aguacates? Do they even have that name of "avocado for slicing"?
In 2/3rds of Spanish speaking world it's aguacate, so a person born in the commi eastern Europe found about it from the relatives who engineered and educated Cuba as aguacate, with first guacamole tried, not everywhere and by everyone, but where some government sponsored fruit and vegetables shops existed in some capiral city sometime in the 80s.
I love them, though they can get expensive in Canada depending on the time of year. I just feel that they are very healthy, with fats that work easily with the human digestive system.
@@katiekane5247 , I was making a joke ---- you do have a sense of humor, don't you? ---- and I know darn well it's an auto-correct issue, as autocorrect screws up my comments regularly. Lance, The History Guy, usually takes great pains to be more accurate and proofread what he posts, but this time he missed it. Anyway, unless you're new here you should already know that many of the frequent commenters here love to make jokes and puns. In these dark times we need to use humor to keep our spirits up.
Worked in avocado research at UCRiverside, and tried many different varieties. Haas is not the best, but easily growm. The bay leaf is a descendant of rhe avocado.
I'm trying to grow some in North Carolina. This location is about the outer extreme of what is feasible - as we do get snow here every few years, and nights commonly go below freezing. I did succeed in collecting my first 4 mature fruits last year.
Rather significant violence in some places. But the generic advice to eat fewer avocados deprives people of their source of income. Developing sustainability given demand is a real challenge.
I lived in Rancho Cucamonga in the early 80s and everyday on the way to school i went through orange lemon and avocado groves. There was one tree that had to be really old because it was huge. Now they're all gone in the name of progress. What a shame
My father had his first avocado as a US Marine during WWII. Most had never seen them. He said it tasted like lard and he spat it out. Years after the war, he learned to like them.
yeah most europeans in the Americas hated all the Native foods like tomato, potato, maize, chocolate, and chili peppers, those first few hundred years. not the brightest folk in history.
Wow!/ i've lived in California since a toddler and have always assumed everyone in America had eaten them for centuries everywhere. I remember my mother, who ate them delicately with a spoon, trying to interest me. I grew to love them via the taco, but to the very young they taste like soap. 😄
I grew up in Fallbrook California in the 70s. Fallbrook was called, The Avocado Capital. Many groves have disappeared due to the high cost of watering the trees. Avocados need to be grown on well draining slopes. I had Fuerte and Hass Avocado trees. I preferred the Fuerte.
Can you do a video on Beans? Its a common food in Mexico since we use it in almost everything and its popular in the southern states when they make a Southern Style soup with Pinto beans. There's different varieties from black beans to Pinto beans and research has shown that its a great alternative to animal protein and it's healthy for heart functions.
I absolutely love avocados. I got to see the original Haas avocado tree in La Habra heights maybe Hacienda heights.. it was kinda on the border... before it died. They had an honor box, and I bought one. ate it on site.
avacado butter is how it was introduced to me in the 1970s in New Zealand and we hwere eatng it on toast regularly in 1978-79. I ended up growing several trees in the early 1980s whilst at high school, just experimenting with botany classes. As far as I know they're still growing on my high school's grounds (I gave them to a biology teacher after propagating them from seed)
As an expatriate from the United States now living in Vietnam, I have noticed that the avocado is widely grown here, not only in groves, but amongst coffee trees to divide one farmer's coffee from another. They are very cheap during the season and a lot of them are left lying on the ground as they are used more as a shade tree for Robusta coffee trees. I personally had three trees growing in my garden and they produced more avocadoes than I could eat one year and then very few the next. This varied from field to field and wasn't a rule of thumb. Avocadoes seem to be rebels against any kind of seasonal growth.
Lots of trees use mast (overproduction) versus bust years to prevent their entire seed crop from being destroyed. Due to the bust years, predators have a low population and insufficient numbers to consume everything produced during a mast year.
In the late sixties / early seventies we (children) ate avocado all the time in California. After moving to TN in 1978 my family was shocked to see both avocado and citrus fruit prices in the east.
My aunt and uncle had an avocado tree the size of a 2 story house in San Gabriel California. As a kid I remember it being loaded with fruit. Didn’t think much about it for we could buy them at the local fruit stand 12 for a dollar back in the 70s.
Well I used to work with a guy whose father developed the Pinkerton Avocado at their ranch near Ventura, Cal. And my wife's family lived can out 1/2 mile from the guy who discovered the Hass avocado. Her Aunt got one of the first Hass avocado cuttings which developed into a huge tree that was very productive. That was near Whittier, California. And just down the street there are acres of Avocado s growing. Good thing I like avocado s.
Pinkerton was was a fellow Navy pilot in the same reserve squadron as I was. His father developed the Pinkerton avocado. He would often show up at the squadron, at Point Mugu, Naval Air Station a pickup load of Avocado's. Anyone in the squadron would take what they wanted. They were grown on his ranch in Ventura. I was married in a house two doors down from the Hass family home. My wife's family home was just a street over in Whittier. I am 72 years old. I was taught a lot about Avocados hears ago. Currently, I live near many acres of Avocados in Riverside. Oranges also all around me. Avocados naturally and routinely mutate. That's why the Hass avocado you buy, is on grafted stock.
I just planted 8 varieties in southern California hoping for year round harvesting in 3-4 years! Hass Reed Lamb Hass Fuerte Mexicola Grande Stewart Mexicola Gwen Pinkerton
The avocados you get at the grocery store are sadly small. My wife’s family took an avocado seed from a store bought one and planted it in two halves on their yard in Florida. It grows massive avocados that are 1-2 pounds a piece, like 5 times the size of the ones you get in store, though it came from one. That shows how young they get picked for grocery stores and aren’t allowed to fully grow close to the size they get. They are quite lovely to eat.
Born in '57 in SoCal, I've loved avocado toast since the 60's. "New blood diamonds"? I'm wondering if my love of avocados supports gangs! Is my Avo purchase from Los Diablos or Hell's Angels? Lol!
My dad too!! His mom (born 1930) and his great aunt (born 1919) gave it to him and his siblings in the 50's, 60's and 70's. No idea where they got it from. Dad fed it to my brother an I in the 80s. I have California born going back to a few 5th great grandfolks. Me, my parents and all of my grandparents were CA born and raised.
A few decades ago, a neighbor brought me a sack of avocados he got at a nearby dairy where he worked. An avocado co-op was dumping excess harvest at the dairy. I asked if the pits gave the cattle problem. Oh no, he said. They swallowed them pit and all! Since then, the popularity of avocados has exploded. I cannot fathom producing too many.
Wondering if that large pit might have arrived in Central America via ocean tides as a 'sea beans'? I live in Costa Rica now on the Pacific Coast and one of my hobbies is sea bean collection, seeds from literally around the world that arrive on the waves. Some, such as sea hearts, can take several years to arrive. You quoted the Tico Times!! LLOL!! I have avocado trees in my yard here and it's nice to have them out there. I eat a lot of local fruits and vegetables.
My mother was a child during WW2. She lived in Californian where her mother and father worked at the ship yards as welders. They had a cousin who had a house that had an avacado tree in the yard. They all enjoyed the avacados as a substitute for butter to spread on toast, etc.
They were hipster and didn't know it. Nice story.
A lady welder? Well I've never heard of such a thing. Next you're going to say, her daughter went on to be a doctor.😮
@@shaolinfox30 My grandmother both welded and riveted at McClellan Air Field in WW II. The work was final assembly of fighter planes bound for the Pacific. Both her daughters were teachers.
@@shaolinfox30My wife and I had a friend who was a welder in the shipyard in Richmond, California during WW 2. She was a true “Rosie the Riviter”. A very sweet woman. She passed away two years ago. She’s was 97.
@ I don’t believe
The original Haas avocado tree was along West road in La habra Heights. After it died, it's stump remained there for some time. A long time family friend carved some wooden bowls from it. One has been on display at the La Habra historical museum. Growing up in the heights, I used to drive by that tree in the early 1980s. Our house was on a 1.7 acre lot of predominantly avocado trees. The year I was born, my father purchased four acres of avocado trees as an investment. He cultivated the trees and sold them to a local packing house and use them for barter. The history guys videos are awesome! Thank you for your research!
Two "alligator pear" trees in my back yard. I am truly blessed.
I guess that's better than two "testicle" trees....
or is it?🥑🥑
Yes you are.
Found Florida Man
Great to pick your own. I don’t buy them now that they have Apeel on them.
@@patron40silverthey even have the "raw chicken skin" texture just like the "genuine article" lol😂
I specialized in grafting avocado trees at a nursery here in NZ. I got to graft some trees using sign wood that was flown over from California. We grew the trees in quarantine for few years then planted them out and used them to gather sign wood from to produce more trees of those particular varieties. I was just the grafter and not the guy that paid for it all .....but I think it's quite cool , in a very small way I helped to bring more prosperity to my country and had a part in building, and in the history of my country. In a hundred years something I did will still be providing for NZers. That's kinda what everyone wants to be able to say at the ending of their lives isn't it ? You left something and did something for the next generations
I'm in Auckland and love avocados, especially at this time of year when they're so affordable. Thank you for the early work you did on multiplying this marvelous crop... hearing your story I'll celebrate you when I next cut an avocado open 👍👍👍
@christinecarter6836 thanks it's nothing I was just part of a team, I'm just little proud I had some part in our countries greatness
Damn… u need to plant a tree.
@NoahSpurrier I grow a few natives as well as different fruit and nut trees that I usually give away to people. I like growing things that our native birds can feed on and I try to get people plant more natives in their home gardens for that reason.
@DS.proudkiwi no matter where on the planet, natives are massively important. Props to you for that, and your work with avocados! You should be proud, I'd be proud to have taken part in something like that, even a small one ❤
Thanks for reminding me to get more avacados at the store--remembering to get more avacados from the store deserves to be remembered!
I grew up in California ... swimming in Brussels Sprouts and Avocados ...
"My condolences." :o)
There are worse things!
@@NVRAMboiall about the "attitude of gratitude!" I grew up in California with tons of fruit trees but then had to move to Alaska. It was a hard thing to leave the cherry , pears and grapes. After a while, I discovered how many types of berry grow wild here and began picking tons of them, my family now makes some incredible wild berry jam every fall and it's replaced store bought!
I also have a rhubarb plant that produces huge stalks every summer, despite never being watered or given fertilizer. It's even been run down with a snow plow several times and I split it's taproot and made two plants out of it. Both grow like a weed to this very day!
Saw your premier on “Destination Unknown,” you knocked it outta the park!
Thank you!
I grew up in Southern California. We had four avocado trees in our yard. As a child in the 1970s, we sold avocados at 4 for $1 on a street corner in the residential neighborhood. Now look at the prices. lol.
Back in the 70s and 80s we had 2 very large avocado trees in our backyard. They produced so much fruit our family couldn't eat a fraction of them so we always ended up giving them away, to friends and neighbors, by the grocery bag. One tree finally died when it split from the weight of all the fruit.
Dang. Jealous
Gotta admit, I wouldn't have thought you could do 2 minutes of interesting things on avocados let alone 15!
You must be new here. 😂
On THG's History of Ketchup video, someone posted; "Why do I need to know the history of ketchup? Wait, what is the history of ketchup?"
One of my favorite episodes is the one on an Onions Futures scandal in the early 20th century.
@@tygrkhat4087 Informative, masterfully delivered, easily digested and preserved for the ages. Its like ketchup for the mind.
In Ventura County avocados could be discussed ad infinitum.
And frequently is...
History Guy. More videos on food please.
studio.th-cam.com/users/playlistPLSnt4mJGJfGh1AXjLrFFbhOQmfI34hA9g/edit?Fmy_videos
He has a lot of them: Hot Dogs, oranges, mustard, and others.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Link doesnt seem to work
@@panchohalo2158 History of food
th-cam.com/play/PLSnt4mJGJfGh1AXjLrFFbhOQmfI34hA9g.html
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Just for me? Thank you. You're one of my very top favorite TH-cam channels.
50+ varieties tested on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in the 1950s. Some are so delicate, they cannot be shipped with skin like paper. Some are so big, they rival grapefruit. Long necks, hooked necks, small seed, large seed…. We call them pear trees and they are even wild. Some old trees, and many yard trees are wild hybrids. Always great to be home during avocado season.
That is one word derivation and image I could’ve gone to my grave without knowing. Thanks History Guy!
Yeah, will never quite look at them the same. And I guess no more feeling them in the store to see if they are soft.
@ 😂 You’re the best, man!
This was a fun history lesson! Can’t wait to order a testicle omelet
😆
there's always Rocky Mountain Oysters
Holy Guacamole
Thanks for making history so much fun to learn. ❤
I live in Mexico and have my avocado tree, of the Hass variety, in my garden. The Hass is a dark brown/almost purple skin and a creamy, almost oily, yellow pulp. We eat them as guacamole, just as a snack or in salads. Never on a sandwich. We don't buy them in supermarkets, as everybody squeezes them to check their ripeness and turning the pulp black. They go for about 1.50 dollars/kg. (5-6 avocados). Prices vary widely from 1.00-10.00/kg.
Your story reminded me of an encounter I recently had in the Publix. A woman in front of me, was squeezing not just a few, but literally almost the entire display. Which is disgustingly entitled, but then she started sneezing on them and her hands. I said some politically incorrect words and she left like a Karen.
So I got the produce manager and explained the situation. One because it was distasteful, and I also didn't want police interference on me. They pulled them all a rewashed every one. I wasn't popular with the high school age employees for a couple of weeks. Long-story-short there is NO need to squeeze them.
@@jonthinks6238 it's impossible to know which side (most probably both) were acting like typical WASPs (arrogant and insensitive).
What I can say is: OF COURSE fruit MUST BE squeezed. But it must be done in a VERY gently and subtle way, to the limit of tact, which permits to feel the fruit without damaging it.
Why MUST BE? Because, unlike Europeans, cultured people only consume well matured fruit, and the only way to know if fruit is ready, is using the senses, specially tact.
@alastorgdl Well, I'm not a wasp, so it was her. But when you sneeze on food and your hands, it is time to stop. Gross
@@jonthinks6238 If you asked ALL fruits to be washed instead of YOU washing the ones you bought, you behave like WASP so you're WASP for any practical purpose.
But I can withdraw that and change it to "acting like typical Europeans".
I bet you understood I'm not approving her behavior, you just need an excuse to avoid the main subject of food culture.
Avadados have been on my plate in one form or another for more than 60 years. I never knew the history of them other than what my mama told me which was it was from Mexico. Im glad to know that one of my favorite foods has such a rich history.
I grew up in the midwest I don't really recall avocados 40 years ago....where did you grow up?
wait till you learn about the 5 cradles of civilization and how they prob created everything you love. we all owe them so much.
I remember avacado in the early 60 they were hard ,never the soft enjoyment of todays avocados.
Bro they gotta ripen first, you been eaten avocados wrong this entire time huh?
Grew up in the Santa Barbara area.
You could always tell the Tourists.
They were the Only ones at the grocery stores BUYING Avocados and Lemons.
It was a sign that you didn't know Anybody, since Nearly Everyone had them in the backyard.
And if You didn't, You knew someone who did.
Nobody who knew Anybody Bought Avocados or Lemons, ..... or Oranges either.
Same with marijuana
@@brucepoole8552😂
@@brucepoole8552Lol according to old lifelong Fallbrook locals, that's why they became the avocado capital. Because they were hiding the marijuana as far back as the 70s 🤣
Growing up in Southern California, there were avocado trees growing in people's back yards, often hanging over the fence, offering their fruits to passersby.
The seed that Haas purchased came from the town that I lived in for 15 years, Whittier. The mother tree was grown the next town over, La Habra Heights. Tho the mother Haas tree died a couple of decades ago, I used to drive by the location where it grew almost every day on my way to work. I had four avo trees in my Whittier backyard, all of different varieties. Sure do miss that!
Which variety did you like best?
My wife's family lived just down slope from the guy who discovered the Base avocado, The address was in Whitter, but the next street over was La Habra. Her aunt purchased one of the first Hass avocado trees offered for sell. Her home was in Whitter. That avocado grew in to a very large tree and was very productive. We were never without free avocado s that were very good.
@@newatthis50 There was an unknown variety that produced big tasty avos. I used to pick up about 8 a day in good seasons. I used to give them away! The squirrels would always get some, so when the tree was producing I would leave peanuts out for the squirrels so they would leave the avos alone. Of commercial varieties, Hass rules!
@cynergy4 I'm currently in Missouri. Much too cold to raise them shucks. Worked in Florida where a lady had sweet ones
Didn't like them as much
@cynergy4 Thank You
I remember trying avocado for the first time as a kid and being very confused by the taste and texture. My great-grandma had brought them from Hawaii, where my grandma grew up eating them. A very unique and delicious gift of nature! Great video, THG!
If those first people to cultivate the plant didn't create the other varieties 7000 years ago we wouldn't even have the ones that weren't mostly a seed. need to thank them every time you eat a avocado. nature just gave us a giant seed with no meat : P
I'm eating some avocado every day now with my salads. I ate them as a kid in the 70s, my Mom showed me how to make one sprout with toothpicks stuck in its sides so that half of the seed rests in the bottom of a glass of water, while the top is out of the water. Anyone else ever do that? Thanks for the delicious avocado history!
Very informative! I developed a taste for avocado just about ten years ago. Now I'm grateful that my mother has a tree in her back garden. Looking forward to this year's crop!
I love your humor!
The First parent Haas avocado 🥑 was just around the corner from my grandparents house. I still remember the plaque and all the tags on it to show where mother stock was taken from the tree 🥑
Born and raised in California, I’ve been eating them for 70 years long before they became a fad. When I lived in Santa Barbara there was one tree on each side of the house.
I lived in Goleta
@ I did too when we first got there. Then we lived up in the hills and in Isla Vista in student housing. Then i moved home to Martinez.
The Indonesian avocados we are familiar with here in South East Asia look nothing like the Hass avocados, and thanks to your enlightening video I now realise we have been eating and drinking the Fuerte avocado variety!
Although he didn't go into the genetics, there are 3 categories, perhaps separate species: West Indian (big, smooth, popular in South Florida before the Redbay Ambrosia Beetle began wiping out all avocados/laurels), Central American, and Mexican (a highland species popular for its better frost tolerance, smaller & bumpier fruit, also the only on with nontoxic foliage, used for teas or as a substitute for bay leaves but more anise flavored). I suspect that in a fully tropical area like Indonesia, the West Indian and Central American types would be more popular.
I live on a former avocado Grove. The cost of water in California killed the economics of growing them.
I like the commercial Hass avocados but finding the variety of locally grown and regional avocados is a wonderful experience.
Testicles Spread on Toast, that's the name of my new band 😂 Watch out Foo Fighters! 😂
“I hope you enjoyed this episode”. Always do Lance. Thank you.
I appreciate you and thank you for making content.
I remember when I was 6 years old we moved from SE Kansas to Colorado and my Mom brought home some avocados from the store. It was love at first bite.
i learned to love avacados in the early 1960s thanks to my mother who would give me half an avacado with salad dressing where the pit used to be. Interestingly, she learned to love it in San Francisco with Green Goddess dressing in the 1930s. I have at least three avacados each week. Love them.
This was a great video! I had no idea about the history of the avocado... fascinating! Thanks!
I spent decades in horticulture, and, seriously, I know much about avocados and raising the tree.
Hass avocados are definitely, from an objective and scientific perspective, superior to many other varieties of avocado. This can happen spontaneously in the biology of plants; many horticultural varieties occur by natural genetic accidents of coincidence.
The Fuerte avocado might seem to be misnamed if you're acquainted with the taste of various avocados, since Fuerte avocados are actually much milder in flavor than Hass. Fuerte is a smooth-skinned more delicate fruit containing mild, less oily, less rich fruit.
A marvelous treatment of the subject, Sir!
Back in the 50's our house in LA had two big avocado trees. I don't recall my folks eating them and me and my friends would use the hard ones as hand grenades when we played war.
Love the new outro.
This popped up in my feed and I just had to watch. Who ever thought of avocados having a history?
I love avocados (paltas or aguacates) in any form. My favorite is added to Mexican shrimp cocktail, but just scooped out of its skin with salt and pepper sprinkled on is great as well. I learned more in this video than I learned in my 74 years of living. Good learning experiences here on this channel.
My great Aunt and Uncle grew them in Southern California in the 40's-90's. Their old farm is now a subdivision.
Great show 👍
We had an avocado tree when I was a kid in the 1950's. I would eat peanut butter and avocado sandwiches - because bananas cost money and avocadoes were free.
I lived in Southern California from 1973 through 1979. Avocados were so popular then we could buy up to 15 avocados for $1.00 at most of the roadside stands. They were abundant and delicious. Today’s prices are exorbitant for just 1 avocado!
Plant the pits. They grow real quick 🌱
But the seeds will not bear fruit.
@lefty-bw1zp No, but they're surprisingly beautiful plants anyway. Large dark green glossy leaves with a hint of the jungle about them.
@@lefty-bw1zpEven if you don't get fruit you will get a cool shade
@@abrahamdraper1911 Oh, the seed grown trees will have fruit but it won't be the same as the fruit the seed came from. This is true of the majority of fruit trees.
@@oldsarj I've never managed to get any fruit at all from an avocado pit. Maybe the N hemisphere climate then?
You know that you have hit the big time when truckloads of avocados are hijacked in Mexico.
Or when the vigilante landowners start charging each other "war tax" to protect them from other vigilante landowners
They had to have armed guards and convoys.
I'm sure it's my general disgust with seafood, but I can't think of more horrifying way to ruin an avocado than by stuffing it with lobster.
Growing up in Washington state in the 70's, they were called California pears. They were kinda expensive at that time.
We should be prepared for much more expensive avocados starting next year.
They also require enormous amounts of water to grow, and since water supplies are being purchased by and diverted for the benefit of Big Ag, we can expect domestically produced avocados to become even more expensive while our public water supplies are being subject to higher cost and possible rationing. As groundwater supplies are depleted, homeowners' wells may go dry.
@@goodun2974 Fewer will be grown, since we will have fewer workers to pick them.
@@goodun2974Saw a documentary on how the big growers stole the water and put small Mexican families out of bus.
Thank you History guy
Dude, I DID enjoy this episode of the history guy
As a graduate of the University of California, Riverside, (home of the Citrus Experiment Station that introduced the naval orange to the world) I think you have understated the contribution our researchers have made to the avocado and its culture. Expect the 'Luna' variety to soon replace the Hass. It was awarded one of Time magazine's best inventions of 2023. Smaller tree, larger yield.
Thank you!
Love your videos
As a New Yorker, I remember as a young girl watching Angie Dickerson’s Avocado 🥑 commercials.
I saw you on TV with Josh. You did great!
Watching from Mackinac Island Michigan
I will never see avocados in the same way again 😂.
Good video,..!!
THG, could you please cover the great hinkley fire in hinkley MN?
A classic Guacomole dip, perhaps from San Diego CA. in the 1970s. 1 avocado peeled, pitted and mashed with a fork. mix with 2 teaspoons lemmon juice, 1/4 cup mayo, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. chill overnight and serve with your favorite chips. To me this taste better than the more modern versions.
Would you allow Mexicans to call classic the apple pie with chili? Classic guacamole is Mexican, not Taco Bell guacamole. Guacamole doesn't go with garlic but goes with GENEROUS amounts of coriander
I like avocado, but guacamole I love!
since the early 1960s my parents and then I started making avocado dip to a recipe that may have been created by the Frito corn chip company here in Texas. You mash up your avocado when it's ripe and just write, and mix it with an equal amount of small curd cottage cheese a little bit of lemon juice and a sprinkle of Lawery's seasoned salt. And then enjoy it with corn chips. A true cold war treat.
"You mash up your avocado when it's ripe"
Do you mean it's common Europeans eat hard, apple-grade aguacates? Do they even have that name of "avocado for slicing"?
In 2/3rds of Spanish speaking world it's aguacate, so a person born in the commi eastern Europe found about it from the relatives who engineered and educated Cuba as aguacate, with first guacamole tried, not everywhere and by everyone, but where some government sponsored fruit and vegetables shops existed in some capiral city sometime in the 80s.
Run that by me again. 🤔
"Avocado Vinaigrette" the Downton Abby of Avocados. 🥑🤗
Today: testicle fruit, Monday: kumquats
I love them, though they can get expensive in Canada depending on the time of year. I just feel that they are very healthy, with fats that work easily with the human digestive system.
There are price spikes, some caused the the on-year off year cycle. They are topical and don't do well in cold, so not a Canadian crop.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel, "topical"? Are you pureeing them and using them for a facial? Please post a photo of you with your avocado face cream! 😁🤣
@@goodun2974I'm glad an obvious autocorrect issue tickles you so 😕
@@katiekane5247 , I was making a joke ---- you do have a sense of humor, don't you? ---- and I know darn well it's an auto-correct issue, as autocorrect screws up my comments regularly. Lance, The History Guy, usually takes great pains to be more accurate and proofread what he posts, but this time he missed it. Anyway, unless you're new here you should already know that many of the frequent commenters here love to make jokes and puns. In these dark times we need to use humor to keep our spirits up.
what a really cool vid!
loads of useful information!
Thanks for the vid!
Worked in avocado research at UCRiverside, and tried many different varieties. Haas is not the best, but easily growm. The bay leaf is a descendant of rhe avocado.
I’ll never look at avocados the same. 🥑🥑
I'm trying to grow some in North Carolina. This location is about the outer extreme of what is feasible - as we do get snow here every few years, and nights commonly go below freezing. I did succeed in collecting my first 4 mature fruits last year.
The History Guy has educated me on current events. I had no idea that violence has erupted over the fruit that I eat at least once a week.
Rather significant violence in some places. But the generic advice to eat fewer avocados deprives people of their source of income. Developing sustainability given demand is a real challenge.
@ Good to know. Thanks for the response and your great work.
I lived in Rancho Cucamonga in the early 80s and everyday on the way to school i went through orange lemon and avocado groves. There was one tree that had to be really old because it was huge. Now they're all gone in the name of progress. What a shame
My father had his first avocado as a US Marine during WWII. Most had never seen them. He said it tasted like lard and he spat it out. Years after the war, he learned to like them.
yeah most europeans in the Americas hated all the Native foods like tomato, potato, maize, chocolate, and chili peppers, those first few hundred years. not the brightest folk in history.
11:35 Australia invented avocado toast in the 90s. Mexico would like to challenge that.
My dad was born in the 30s, and he loved toasted bread with avocado. (Puerto Rico, by the way)
Wow!/ i've lived in California since a toddler and have always assumed everyone in America had eaten them for centuries everywhere. I remember my mother, who ate them delicately with a spoon, trying to interest me. I grew to love them via the taco, but to the very young they taste like soap. 😄
Yes, California availability was different than much of the rest of the nation. Still, they were ot always available year round as they are today.
I grew up in Fallbrook California in the 70s. Fallbrook was called, The Avocado Capital. Many groves have disappeared due to the high cost of watering the trees. Avocados need to be grown on well draining slopes. I had Fuerte and Hass Avocado trees. I preferred the Fuerte.
Can you do a video on Beans?
Its a common food in Mexico since we use it in almost everything and its popular in the southern states when they make a Southern Style soup with Pinto beans.
There's different varieties from black beans to Pinto beans and research has shown that its a great alternative to animal protein and it's healthy for heart functions.
Thanks!
Thank you!
I absolutely love avocados. I got to see the original Haas avocado tree in La Habra heights maybe Hacienda heights.. it was kinda on the border... before it died.
They had an honor box, and I bought one. ate it on site.
avacado butter is how it was introduced to me in the 1970s in New Zealand and we hwere eatng it on toast regularly in 1978-79.
I ended up growing several trees in the early 1980s whilst at high school, just experimenting with botany classes. As far as I know they're still growing on my high school's grounds (I gave them to a biology teacher after propagating them from seed)
Once you have tasted the very large tree ripened avocados that are grown in Barbados, all other avocados seem bland and fibrous in comparison.
Tree-ripened anything is superior to commercial supplies! ( edited to add)
Ever had a tree-ripened Bartlett Pear?
Our trees in the lower rio grand valley had very large fruit ,aprox . 3 pounds each and 20 to 25 bushels per tree per year . Softball sized seeds.
yum!
As an expatriate from the United States now living in Vietnam, I have noticed that the avocado is widely grown here, not only in groves, but amongst coffee trees to divide one farmer's coffee from another. They are very cheap during the season and a lot of them are left lying on the ground as they are used more as a shade tree for Robusta coffee trees. I personally had three trees growing in my garden and they produced more avocadoes than I could eat one year and then very few the next. This varied from field to field and wasn't a rule of thumb. Avocadoes seem to be rebels against any kind of seasonal growth.
Lots of trees use mast (overproduction) versus bust years to prevent their entire seed crop from being destroyed. Due to the bust years, predators have a low population and insufficient numbers to consume everything produced during a mast year.
In the late sixties / early seventies we (children) ate avocado all the time in California. After moving to TN in 1978 my family was shocked to see both avocado and citrus fruit prices in the east.
Definitely my preferred fat of choice....raw is best. But I will sometimes saute in avocado oil.
My aunt and uncle had an avocado tree the size of a 2 story house in San Gabriel California. As a kid I remember it being loaded with fruit. Didn’t think much about it for we could buy them at the local fruit stand 12 for a dollar back in the 70s.
Well I used to work with a guy whose father developed the Pinkerton Avocado at their ranch near Ventura, Cal. And my wife's family lived can out 1/2 mile from the guy who discovered the Hass avocado. Her Aunt got one of the first Hass avocado cuttings which developed into a huge tree that was very productive. That was near Whittier, California. And just down the street there are acres of Avocado s growing. Good thing I like avocado s.
holy guacamole was that guy 7000 years old?
Pinkerton was was a fellow Navy pilot in the same reserve squadron as I was. His father developed the Pinkerton avocado. He would often show up at the squadron, at Point Mugu, Naval Air Station a pickup load of Avocado's. Anyone in the squadron would take what they wanted. They were grown on his ranch in Ventura. I was married in a house two doors down from the Hass family home. My wife's family home was just a street over in Whittier. I am 72 years old. I was taught a lot about Avocados hears ago. Currently, I live near many acres of Avocados in Riverside. Oranges also all around me. Avocados naturally and routinely mutate. That's why the Hass avocado you buy, is on grafted stock.
I just planted 8 varieties in southern California hoping for year round harvesting in 3-4 years!
Hass
Reed
Lamb Hass
Fuerte
Mexicola Grande
Stewart Mexicola
Gwen
Pinkerton
The avocados you get at the grocery store are sadly small.
My wife’s family took an avocado seed from a store bought one and planted it in two halves on their yard in Florida.
It grows massive avocados that are 1-2 pounds a piece, like 5 times the size of the ones you get in store, though it came from one.
That shows how young they get picked for grocery stores and aren’t allowed to fully grow close to the size they get.
They are quite lovely to eat.
Born in '57 in SoCal, I've loved avocado toast since the 60's. "New blood diamonds"? I'm wondering if my love of avocados supports gangs! Is my Avo purchase from Los Diablos or Hell's Angels? Lol!
My dad too!! His mom (born 1930) and his great aunt (born 1919) gave it to him and his siblings in the 50's, 60's and 70's. No idea where they got it from. Dad fed it to my brother an I in the 80s. I have California born going back to a few 5th great grandfolks. Me, my parents and all of my grandparents were CA born and raised.
I love Avocado facts!
A few decades ago, a neighbor brought me a sack of avocados he got at a nearby dairy where he worked. An avocado co-op was dumping excess harvest at the dairy. I asked if the pits gave the cattle problem. Oh no, he said. They swallowed them pit and all! Since then, the popularity of avocados has exploded. I cannot fathom producing too many.
I notice that you wore a green tie for the history of avocados. Cute!
Wondering if that large pit might have arrived in Central America via ocean tides as a 'sea beans'? I live in Costa Rica now on the Pacific Coast and one of my hobbies is sea bean collection, seeds from literally around the world that arrive on the waves. Some, such as sea hearts, can take several years to arrive.
You quoted the Tico Times!! LLOL!! I have avocado trees in my yard here and it's nice to have them out there. I eat a lot of local fruits and vegetables.
Makes me want to go to the grocery tomorrow morn and buy some.
Good ol' Snot Pears.