Seasonal Eats: Culitvar-Hopping for Year-Round Avocado Eating!

Bacon, Fuerte, Pinkerton and Zutano Avocados (Heather Parlato/LAist)

Bacon, Fuerte, Pinkerton and Zutano Avocados (Heather Parlato/LAist)
I got to talking with one of the avocado sellers at the farmer's market, and since i was impressed with the variety she sells, I asked about seasonality of avocados. I always knew different cultivars matured at different times of year, but wasn't sure which. The seller set me straight, while Haas may be harvested year-round depending on the climate, it's typically a springtime avocado in California—but don't despair, you can strategize seasonally and still enjoy local avocados most of the year. The winter cultivars for the southland include Bacon, Fuerte, Pinkerton and Zutano, each with slightly different characteristics, but all are delicious varieties to enjoy in winter and early spring before haas take over.

While there are many subtropical species that don't tolerate a frost, cultivars have sprung up in each growing region, and these winter varieties have come to tolerate temps in the mid-20s, as in the cases of Bacon and Fuerte. Cultivars are propagated by grafting onto hardy rootstocks, but it seems kids everywhere have had some experience sticking the pits with toothpicks, setting in a cup of water and eagerly waiting for them to sprout. Just note, doing this with your favorite variety won't grow a tree of the same species. Some notes about keeping avocado trees, they depend on cross-pollination, so if you have room to plant a tree, make a pact with a neighbor and plant a pair so you both get fruit. Also, the leaves, bark, skin and pit have been documented to be dangerous to some animals if consumed, so it may be best to fence off the tree and be sure to pick up fallen fruit.

Obligatory Wikipedia Fun Facts: Hilariously, the word 'avocado' comes from the Nahuatl word ahuacatl (testicle, a reference to the shape of the fruit), and was known as a fertility fruit by the Aztecs. The Nahuatl ahuacatl can be compounded with other words, as in ahuacamolli, meaning avocado soup or sauce, from which the Mexican Spanish word guacamole derives. Our own Fallbrook, California claims to be the avocado capital of the world, home of the Zutano cultivar. Avocados are high in fat, but it's monounsaturated fat, which makes it a good fat to eat, and beneficial to blood serum cholesterol. Avocados are a good source of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber, they contain 60% more potassium than bananas, and are rich in Vitamin B, Vitamin E and Vitamin K. They're also highly anti-inflammatory with antibacterial components, so eat up!

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Avocados are almost exclusively eaten raw, since they brown and break down with cooking. One exception is the quick frying of avocado chips, but if you ask me, that looks like a lot of trouble compared to cutting open the raw fruit, shaking in some hot sauce, and spooning out bites as a snack. In fact, I could easily end this article right now by saying, pick any recipe you like and add avocado to it—done! But why pass up the opportunity to talk about all these delicious combos.

Let's start with the obvious choice of salsas, because I found some great ones that are winter-specific. If you canned summer tomatoes or put up some tomato or tomatillo salsa this year, you can make a variation on this guacamole, this avocado and white bean salsa, or avocado tomatillo salsa. I don't want to encourage diversion from seasonality though, so if you've got farmer's market sellers who are growing greenhouse tomatoes, stick with them for these recipes. Alternately, this asian avocado salsa looks delicious and would be a great topper to some of those sliced root veggies or stuffing to leafy green wraps we've been talking about all winter.

For the salad-o-philes, if you're not an "add avocado to anything" person, here's how you can get that devil-may-care attitude about doing it. Remember kale? Add avocado: kale avocado salad. Like potato salad? Add avocado: lemony potato avocado salad. What about tabbouleh? Add avocado: tabouleh with avocado and feta. If you'd rather only add a tiny bit of salad to your avocado, go for straight up avocado salad. Are you a winter citrus lover? Try out avocado, orange and jicama salad, or avocado grapefruit salad. Beet things up in a mixed beets and avocado salad or this tangy, flavorful beet, avocado and goat cheese salad. If you love a raw sweet onion, showcase it on avocado and sweet onion salad. And finally, most original salad award goes to this spicy, fruity asian pear and avocado salad with garam masala syrup. What? Yes!

Again, there are so many summer favorites for avocados, we'll be sure to profile summer avocados with all their tomato-y, tomatillo-y, corn-y goodness in a few months. For now though, enjoy sliced avocado on your tacos and fajitas. Enjoy a chilled avocado mint soup. And, I'm not saying deviled eggs are broke, but what about fixing them up, like avocado deviled eggs? For the avocado dish that eats like a meal, with a name that goes on for days, try potato, chicken, green bean, egg and avocado salad in an herb mayonnaise. This one time, I overheard these new yorkers at a deli, whereupon receiving their bagel & lox platter and seeing the avocado slices, one said to the other, "What the hell is this, California?" Yes, sir, it is: the B.L.A., bagel with lox and avocado.

In many parts of the world, avocado is sweetened or blended into shakes. Use the richness in avocado gelato, whip them up into sweet avocado mousse, or try this vegan dairy-free avocado ice cream. Get down with many of the hotter climates of the world and make yourself an avocado shake, to which many cultures add chocolate. Mmmm!

Once upon a time when I was looking for preservation techniques, I found an avocado butter, which uses dairy butter to emulsify and protect the avocado fat, stretching the keeping time to a couple months, for use with grilled veggies, fish and chicken. I took some cues from several that I liked and made my own.

Spicy Avocado Butter (Heather Parlato/LAist)
Spicy Avocado Butter

2 medium avocados, scrape flesh from peels

2 tbs butter

2 tbs olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon salt

Soften the butter to room temperature, and mash together with avocado flesh to a fairly uniform consistency. Whisk in olive oil to a uniform consistency. Fold in all other ingredients except juice of 1 half of the lemon, and stir to blend.

Pick a container close in size to the quantity to be stored and pack up your avocado butter. Squirt the top with the remaining lemon, optionally top with red pepper flakes.