We began harvesting our Bacon avocados towards the end of October 2019, and were delighted to find that the fruit was not only hefty and healthy, but also large. It makes a big difference to prices paid if the caliber of each avocado falls into the bigger size.
By November we were harvesting the Fuerte avocados. Our Fuerte trees are planted mainly for pollination purposes, so we don't have row upon row of these beautiful trees. Notheless, on average they produce a few thousand kilos, so it can take us a couple of weeks to pick.
Fuerte trees produce good green-skin fruit, similar to Bacon, and also provide a reasonable harvest of 'cocktail' avocados -- those little cucumber-shaped avocados that can be eaten with the skin. Chefs often use them to decorate dishes. We tend to save them up as a snack.
Our largest harvest is always from our Hass plantation. As in other years, friends and family travelled down to help with the picking. It was tremendous fun albeit hard work, especially in the early morning when it's still chilly and the dew lies heavy on the branches of the trees. You get soaked if you're first out!
Unfortunately, the amount of kilos picked off our Hass trees was less than in previous years, and the fruit was slightly smaller in size. We don't know why but suspect that the crazy winds we had in the late summer might have thrown more fruit off the trees than is usual. The trees may also have struggled with the added evaporation as a result or the winds. It's hard to tell but from talking to other avocado farmers, they too had a less bountiful harvest than in previous years.
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By mid-February, the avocados were off the trees and we were ready to start the next harvest -- our lemons... but then lockdown happened... and that, as they say, is another story.