This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity of touring, tasting, and learning all about California avocados, thanks to the California Avocado Commission. I have so many pictures to share with you from this trip! Let’s talk about California Avocados, shall we?
- They’re hand grown in California by nearly 5,000 growers and supply about 90% of the entire U.S.’ avocado crop.
- There are 7 different kinds of avocados grown in California, with the most popular one being the Hass. The Hass makes up about 95% of the crop volume.
- Avocados have less than 1 gram of sugar, contain no sodium, have 11 beneficial carotenoids, supply 152 mg of potassium, and are full of the “good” fats. In other words, they’re great for you to eat!
- They’re also a nutrient booster since it helps the body absorb more fat-soluble nutrients.
I’ll share some more avocado tidbits throughout this post. When I first came for the weekend trip, I was greeted with this adorable swag bag:
Timeout. Can we talk about that California shaped cutting board?! If this was the only thing that I got from the weekend, I’d walk away happy as a clam.
But nope, there’s more… we got to stay at the Four Seasons in Westlake Village, California! Ummm, what? I had to read the email twice when I first got the itinerary. Truly a treat (especially since I’m a Four Seasons virgin).
I got a little too excited and even did a robe and slippers selfie. Sorry, not sorry.
We had dinner planned for us at Salt in Calabasas with a menu specifically made for us. All of our menus for those two days were made special for our group. Avocados galore in every dish!
Our 1st course was a California Avocado and ruby grapefruit with baby kale and citrus vinaigrette.
2nd course: Kalua pork and California Avocado egg rolls
3rd Course: Dungeness crab, mango, and California Avocado
4th course: Braised short ribs with California Avocado smashed potatoes
5th course: Chocolate cake with California Avocado and chocolate anglaise 
My favorite dish from the meal was probably the salad. All of the avocados that we ate were perfectly ripe and creamy. When you’re looking for a delicious avocado, make sure to look for the “California label” for premium quality. To tell if it’s ripe, gently squeeze the fruit in the palm of your hand. Don’t use your fingers or push too hard! That’ll cause bruising.
We had breakfast at the hotel the next morning.
Top left: smoked salmon and egg salad with diced avocado on pumpernickel toast triangles
Top right: chilled avocado, mango, honey and greek yogurt smoothie shooters
Bottom left: avocado, agave and yogurt parfaits with house made granola
Bottom Right: I didn’t get the name of this dish, but it’s basically a bacon bruschetta.
You better believe there were avocados in every dish!
Our first stop of the day was to Brokaw Nursery in Ventura to see how avocados were grown. Hank Brokaw spent twenty years figuring out how to effectively graft trees with good rootstock and desired fruit varieties. Because of him, his method soared throughout California. His nursery is now the state’s largest avocado tree producer and has sold more than 10 million trees! 
Here are the stages of an avocado tree, starting out as a (rather large) seed.
Approximately 10% of the trees die at each stage, so they have to order 50% more seeds than wanted trees to ensure that the right number of trees survive. 
These seeds come from Florida and the Dominican Republic, and they’re West Indian seeds.
Something unique about Brokaw Nursery is this copper dip/bath that everyone and everything goes through before entering the nursery.
We had to do it too! It prevents diseases being dragged into the dirt/soil. 
This is what avocados look like when they begin sprouting. Little itty bitty babies!
The trees are at the nursery for 1 1/2 – 2 years before they sell them. They’re at their prime at around nine years old and can live up to thirty years.
For our next stop of the day, we went to Rancho Rodoro in Santa Paula. These were our fabulous hosts: Randy Axell and his wife, Joanna.
They’re pretty much the cutest two peas in a pod that I ever did see. Randy is one of the growers for California Avocados and welcomed us onto his 40 acres of land, where we got to pick our own avocados!
I had no idea this many avocados could grow on one branch! The branch gets so heavy that it almost touches the floor at times. Those are the ones that were the easiest to pick. 
Not only did Randy let us pick his avocados, he also welcomed our group for lunch in his barn.
Stop it. How cute can this little family be? The barn was filled with antiques and memorabilia. 
I never drink anything besides water or hot tea, but I gulped down three cups of that strawberry rhubarb lemonade. My mouth is salivating as I type. 
Our lunch was prepared by Chef Pink, who owns Bacon and Brine in Solvang. You might recognize her from Cutthroat Kitchen and The Food Network.
We began with appetizers. There was avocado gazpacho.
This was my favorite. It was simply bread, avocados, and a Korean spicy salt mixture.
Mini bacon/avocado sandwiches. This bacon absolutely rocked my world. No wonder why her restaurant has “bacon” in the name! Chef Pink sure knows how to cook it. 
We followed up appetizers with the main meal: a Kimchi pork and avocado burger with an avocado arugula salad.
As if we didn’t eat enough, dessert was a key lime and California Avocado tart. It was light, vegan (if you take off the whipped cream on top), and tangy.
We walked off our meal after lunch and got to see Randy’s house that was recently restored. Him and his wife live on the farm, so they literally live and breathe avocados. It shows how much passion Randy has for the farm life. As he states, “I love being able to spend every day on our farm and in the groves. It’s very satisfying to be able to grow something from a tiny seed to a full tree. [Being a California avocado grower is] so much like heaven and it takes care of me and my family.”
For the last part of the tour, we went to Mission Avocados to see how avocados were packed. This is one of California’s newest packing houses. We didn’t get to take pictures throughout the tour, but I was able to take an aerial shot.
SO many avocados just waiting to be delivered into people’s homes!
Here are some of the different sized avocados. There are still avocados bigger and smaller than the ones pictured.
We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit before dinner at the hotel. Chef Jesse Hansen prepared the menu for us. Side note… I just saw that he was born in Albany, CA. That was where we were living before we came back down to LA! What a small world! I sure do love that little town just north of Berkeley.
What’s dinner without some appetizers?
There were mini ahi tuna tacos, chicken empanadas, and tempura avocados.
We had a mini avocado session, where we learned how to select an avocado, how to ripen an avocado, and how to cut an avocado. We also learned how simple avocado toast was. Remember my favorite avocado toast? I still make it quite frequently.
We sat down for dinner in the private dining room.
Our table set up was so elegant!
For dinner, we had a bitter greens salad with avocado carpaccio and Shelton Farms semi-boneless half chicken with english pea and new potato hash, seared trumpet mushrooms with a California Avocado roasted pepper salsa. For dessert, we had dark chocolate whiskey cake with California Avocado ice cream and a blood orange sauce. My favorite part was by far the avocado ice cream. It was perfect.
To sum up the weekend: I probably ate about ten avocados, saw the entire process of avocados from the dirt to our plates, and loved every second of it. Thank you so much to the California Avocado Commission for including me in such a special event! For more recipes and tips, check them out on:
Stay tuned. I have lots of California Avocado recipes coming up!
