There are hundreds of avocado varieties, each with their own unique size, shape, texture and flavour, but walk down the fruit and veg aisle at your local supermarket and you might get the impression the Hass is the only type of avocado there is.

It’s not that we can’t grow other varieties in Australia, says Alstonville organic avocado grower, Kate Thompson, it’s just that Hass is the toughest. It’s the one that can best withstand long periods of cold storage after it is picked, be transported over long distances, artificially ripened and then still look presentable when it finally reaches the supermarket shelf.

“They’re thick skinned, they travel well, they can be rough handled and they’ll cope with a lot of cold storage,” said Kate, “they’re supermarket friendly.”

But Kate, who names the Hass as her least favourite avocado, says it’s a shame that people are missing out other varieties. Types like the green-skinned Sharwil, or pear- shaped Fuerte, both of which have a beautiful nutty flavour and creamy texture, or the Lamb Hass, also creamier than the standard Hass.

At her farmers market stall, The Organic Avocado, Kate sells all of these throughout the avocado season, giving her customers tips on the handling, storing and eating of the different varieties, and has found that once people discover their wonderful taste and texture, they’re hooked.

The Hass does get a look-in at Kate’s stall (it’s still an excellent eating avocado, she says), but the fruit she sells is a lot different in flavour to the standard supermarket Hass, thanks to the way Kate handles her fruit after it’s picked. When they’ve reached the right oil content, they’re simply picked from the tree, graded, left in the storage shed for a week or so to ripen, then sold at the farmers market.

It’s a stark contrast to the avocados sold through the big retailers, whose flavour is diminished by the days or weeks they spend going in and out of cold storage before they are artificially ripened with ethylene gas.

“They go through what they call a cold chain,” explained Kate.

“They’ll go into a cold room while they’re waiting to be graded, they get graded, they go back into the cold room then they go onto  a cold truck.

” Then they go down to  the markets and they go into a cold room, then they get sold and go back to a cold room and then they put them in another room and gas them to ripen them.”

“It’s why they taste so ordinary,” she said, and why it’s not surprising that I sell a lot. “

• Find The Organic Avocado at the Mullumbimby Farmers Market every Friday.

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Grow Your Own Avocado

  • This is a great experiment, especially for kids,  and if you’re lucky, you could even have your own crop of home grown avocados in three years time.
  • Save an avocado seed.
  • Use three toothpicks to hold it broad end down over a jar of water, covering the bottom third of the seed in the water.
  • Place it in a warm pace out of direct sunlight and change water weekly.
  • Within 2-6 weeks the seed should sprout. Once it is about 10cm tall, you can plant your avocado tree in a pot, or in the ground.

NB: This method will give you a tree, but it’s not guaranteed it will give you fruit. Kate says it might give you fruit in three years, it might give you fruit in 17 years, or it may not give fruit at all, so it’s more about the fun of it. If you really want an avocado tree that’s more than ornamental and will give you avocados, a grafted tree is your best bet. A grafted tree is stronger and guaranteed to fruit: “You know you’re going to get a little bit of fruit within three years, and by five of six years they’re going to be in full production,” said Kate.

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– By Kate O’Neill