The Bacon Harvest

We've been busy with the Bacon avocado harvest these last few weeks and now it's all done! We began at the end of October and packed the last of the Bacon avocados in crates a few days ago.

But rest assured, it hasn't been an easy harvest this year. Whereas the fruit was of a high quality and there was more of it than ever before (the trees are bigger and stronger as each year goes by), the weather was atrocious for many of the days we were picking. When we were able to harvest, we worked straight through. On rainy days, we had to find other things to do and the avocados stayed on the trees, dripping wet and waiting.

The reason we don't pick when the weather's bad is because the cooperative will not accept fruit that has been picked in the rain. It's also not that easy to harvest slippery avocados and using cutters that are wet is dangerous and makes the job all the harder.

The fact is, we've had more rain this autumn than is usual for the entire winter. Think about that. We're not even at the end of November and records for rainfall during the winter season in the province have already been smashed. The land is waterlogged and the hills are covered in a soft green blanket of grass. From a distance, the Guadalhorce Valley looks as if it belongs somewhere in Ireland or mid Wales.

The avocados don't seem to mind, though. They are, after all, a sub tropical fruit, so rain and plenty of it is what they love. So long as it's not cold -- the daytime temperature hovers around 15C -- they'll be fine.

If there's a break in the weather, we'll start with the Fuerte harvest as we have an order from South Africa for next week. Let's keep our fingers crossed we manage to pick the fruit in time!