[dropcap size=big]I[/dropcap]n Southern California, avocados are a way of life.
For those of us who grew up here, we were always one cousin’s friend or a tia away from a big bag of fresh avocados grown in someone’s backyard. At backyard family gatherings, a big bowl of mom’s chunky guacamole to slather all over your makeshift carne asada tacos was always guaranteed to be there, just as Art Laboe dedications are on the radio every weekend, or hearing the firework booms over the Chavez Ravine echo throughout the city every Friday in the summer. Avocados are simply part of who we are as Angelenos.
After Mexico, where the first avocado originated, you can thank L.A. County’s deep east neighborhood of La Habra Heights for this little piece of green, buttery heaven on earth for being such a staple of California culture.
Hass, which is the avocado variety we mostly eat and hoard when they are on sale at the market, began with the mailman and amateur horticulturist Rudolph Hass. He first grew the fruit, then later brought the fruit to the market for mass consumption creating an economic boom. Today the Hass avocado makes up for 95 percent of the global market and it is estimated that Americans spend $900,000 a month on the spreadable green gold.
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