Produce Provenance
that wasn’t odd enough, the fruit from this tree also looked completely different. Unlike the green, smooth- skinned Fuertes, this fruit was dark and bumpy. The different appearance didn’t stop Rudolph’s children from wanting to taste the unusual avoca- do. The children loved it. In fact, they preferred it over the Fuertes. This new avocado, Rudolph would later explain, had a “butter consistency with no fiber and with excellent nutty flavor.” Beyond the richer taste, and perhaps most important for growers seeking an avocado revolution, this new avocado had a thicker skin allowing it to travel long distances without getting bruised. The Fuerte had been bested. In 1935, Rudolph patented the extraordinary avocado using his last name — Hass. Even with the discovery of this superior avocado variety, suitable for transcontinental distribution, it would be another four decades before Hass would replace Fuerte as the leading California avocado variety. The avocado would have to battle its long-standing reputation as an aph- rodisiac and then the low-fat diet fad of the 1980s before rising to popular- ity in the 1990s. Between savvy rebranding, mar - keting and education, the avoca- do became a celebrity fruit across America and eventually the world. What started as a treat for mega sloths has become the fruit of the Super Bowl and an $18 billion market. Apparently, good things do come to those who wait — even if it is several thousands of years. • John Paap is the Sustainability and Brand Marketing Manager at Jac. Vandenberg, Inc. and co-host of the “History of Fresh Produce” series on The Produce Industry Podcast.
Trade of the avocado would explain how this fruit reached all the way to Peru by the time the Spanish arrived in the New World in the 15th century.
Rudolph could not buy new trees so he decided to cut down many of the old trees and grow his own seedlings which he could then graft to the Fuerte trees. According to his son, Rudolph “purchased many Guatemalan seeds from a nursery” in Whittier, California. Overall, the exercise was a success and the seedlings successfully grafted to the Fuerte cuttings. However, one of the seed- lings stubbornly refused to accept
a graft. Rudolph wanted nothing to do with this resistor and asked his professional grafter to chop it down. Luckily, for all of us, the grafter convinced Rudolph to let the tree be. After all, it was still a strong tree and who knows? Maybe it will produce some interesting fruit. Three years later the determined, anti-grafting seedling grew to 14 inches and began to produce fruit — at least two years earlier than Fuerte trees usually start bearing fruit. If
36 Vision Magazine
October/November 2023
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