What started as a treat for mega sloths has become the fruit of the Super Bowl and an $18 billion market
fruit aguacate. It’s from this word that we eventually got avocado in English. For the next few hundred years, the avocado would remain popular only in the Spanish colo- nies, where it was native. Finally, in 1825, the avocado was introduced to the United States, but it still would not become well known until the 20th century. Growers were looking for the right variety that could expand beyond the tradi- tional avocado-eating Southwest market. The first promising variety
was Fuerte, a large, green, smooth- skinned variety that could survive a freeze and did so with great aplomb during the great freeze of 1913. Unfortunately, strength against freeze couldn’t make up for a short shelf-life and vulnerability to bruis- ing. If avocados were to become a national staple, it would need to be “fuerte” in other departments. In 1926, prayers were answered by a United States postal worker. A variety discovered out of sheer luck and curi- osity would set this buttery fruit on a
path to celebrity status. In 1925, Rudolph was a postman from La Habra Heights, California, making just 25 cents an hour, when he came across an illustration in a magazine of an avocado tree with dollar bills hanging from it. Seemingly inspired by this ad- vertisement, Rudolph used all his money, and a loan from his sister, to buy an acre and a half avocado grove. Unsurprisingly, most of the trees on the grove were of the Fuerte vari- ety. With little money left to spend,
Vision Magazine 35
October/November 2023
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