Ahh, Santa Barbara, where the streets are paved with avocados page

[sbhikes]

I went for a walk today and here are some pictures of avocados. Sad, abandoned avocados. It's such a waste how much fruit just falls off trees around here. Not just avocados, but lemons, oranges, tangerines, plums and more. People ignore their fruit trees.

An avocado in the gutter. I picked it up but it had been bitten by animals. Otherwise, I might have taken it home.


An avocado in the parking strip. Sometimes I actually take these home. This one is too old, no good.


Sometimes I find cherimoyas on the sidewalk. Here is the tree that drops them. I don't think the people living in this house even know they have a cherimoya tree. It took me a minute to see the fruit. It's right in the middle and a little bit up. Not ripe yet.


Pear-shaped avos. These ones are really good. This is one of our trees. We have all kinds.


This is the kind of avocado you get when you plant a seed. This is the root stock of one of our avocado trees fully grown and bearing fruit. This year the fruit is really big. The fruit is barely edible.


This is the fruit of the root stock cut open. It smells minty, which sounds nice, but really isn't nice at all. The skin is thin and difficult to remove. The seed is large. You can eat it but it isn't really worth the effort. I believe, because of the mint smell to the fruit and leaves, that this is Mexicola variety.

[Paleobird]

Shhhhhh. SB! Don't tell everybody how nice it is here in SoCal or everyone is going to want to move here and it's going to get too crowded.

[namelesswonder]

Cool! We have plenty of apple orchards up here, but not many people have fruit trees. I'd love to have my own someday.

[Tercio]

There's a big old Mission Fig Tree tucked in by an overpass about 1/2 mile away from me. Getting them ripe is pretty competitive as the locals do a pretty good job. But I'm 6' tall so I can usually get a few in season. They are sweet and heavenly and it's a frequent stop on our dog walks. They like them too.

I guess using that root stalk is how the haas avocado growers keep their market. Otherwise they would be everywhere.

And Paleobird, I think we passed 'too' crowded a long time ago.

[sakura_girl]

There's a big old Mission Fig Tree tucked in by an overpass about 1/2 mile away from me. Getting them ripe is pretty competitive as the locals do a pretty good job. But I'm 6' tall so I can usually get a few in season. They are sweet and heavenly and it's a frequent stop on our dog walks. They like them too.

Haha same here! I like walking from the Whole Foods nearby to the produce store 2 miles away because there is a mission fig tree on the way XD They are soooo delicious in October..can't wait!

[Karma]

Funny! My dogs drag me to the house next door at the end of every walk. Reason? - two apple trees, two plum trees, a peach tree and a necterine tree. All organic, no pesticides. Each dog gets a piece of fruit from them every day all summer long, keeps them regular!

[NicoleP]

Cherimoya is $6 a pound at Whole Foods. If I had a tree I sure as hell would be eating them. Its probably the best fruit I have ever had! The seeds are a pain in the ass but its still awesome.

[meeme]

I have no idea what Cherimoya are...LOL Mulberries will be ready soon...I should go check the trees. Yum. I want to plant some fruit trees including a Paw Paw or three.

[HotRodKristina]

So if you sprout your own trees from a seed, then the fruit ends up being icky like that?

Damn, I've got four of them in various sizes right now, under 3 years old.

[sbhikes]

Yeah, most tree fruits are grafts on root stocks. The root stocks are hardier but have poor fruit. More like the original fruit. The grafts have the good fruit but are not hardy enough on their own roots. This is why when people say paleo fruit was never as sweet and big as modern fruit and that it's all been selectively bred they are actually very much correct.