There was also an increasing appetite for Hass avocados due to their flavor and preference among elites. The black skin was also effective at hiding blemishes that would normally put off buyers of green avocados. Over time, however, growers and distributors started to appreciate the Hass trees for their greater yield and the tough skins of the fruit, which protected the flesh and meant that fewer fruits were damaged during shipping. Initial demand for the Hass avocado seed and fruit was poor – consumers were put off by the different color and strange appearance of the skin that was considered unattractive compared to other varieties. Hass agreed on a deal where he would receive 25% of the proceeds on all sales. Hass took out a patent on Hass avocados in 1935 and made a deal with Harold Brokaw, the owner of a nursery in Whittier, CA, to grow and promote the fruit. Hass’s wife and children tried the fruit which was creamy with a rich nutty taste and they found it superior to any avocado they’d eaten before.Įncouraged by the fruit’s taste and the tree’s long harvest season, Hass decided to grow and promote the new variety that he named the Hass avocado fruit, after himself. The skin was black, not green, and rough and pebbly rather than smooth. The fruit that grew from the tree looked very different from the Fuerte avocados that surrounded it. Rudolf Hass was ready to give up and chop the tree down but he was persuaded to let it grow, just to see what would happen. In this case, Hass was trying to grow Fuerte avocados (which at the time were considered to be one of the superior varieties) from the avocado seeds of unknown origin.įor two years in a row, one tree rejected the graft. Grafting is a horticultural process often used on fruit trees to ensure that the desired variety of fruit continues to grow on the new tree. After the seeds he had planted grew into immature trees, Hass used cuttings from the Fuerte trees to perform a grafting of the newly planted avocado trees with the Fuerte avocado. Hass planted the seeds on his property in La Habra Heights, CA, which already had a few mature Fuerte avocado trees. During this time, there were several different varieties of avocado being grown and sold in California. Rideout was sourcing avocado seeds from several different locations, including restaurant scraps and neighbors’ yards. A postal worker named Rudolph Hass purchased some avocado seeds from a local nursery owned by A. The word became “ahuacate” after the Spanish conquest of Mexico and was renamed to “avocado” by American farmers since it was easier to pronounce.įast forward to 1926 when the story of the Hass avocado grove began in California. The original name for the avocado was “Ahuacatl”, which refers to a certain part of the male anatomy that the shape of avocados happens to resemble since they tend to grow in pairs. Avocados are native to Central America and Mexico, where they were cultivated by early humans as far back as 500 B.C. Avocados have, of course, been around for thousands of years.
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