preserve our avocados..

how green was my avocado?
hey..did ya notice the News-Press didn't sponsor anything this year related to the Avocado Festival and didn't mention but a pip about it in the paper!!

preserving ag is more important than some touchy feely yesterday version of SB!! Ag keeps growth down and balanced..so any city council that says yes to ag land grabs for sprawl should be dipped in guacamole!! Now, if yer sick of the liquor festivals in good ol' Santa Barbara, come to the Avocado Festival in Carp...I don't always agree with the city or city council, but this is a very well run city and the festival is good thing...the name should be changed back to the Carpinteria Avocado Festival, but that's for another time..right now, I'm diggin California avocados...and the mystical groves in the foothills...enlightenment awaits... as I sit in a grove smoking avo-mescaline (ground up avocado leaves) reading a Yaqui Way of Knowledge...I start tripping...
The avocado tree, Persea americana, is a member of the laurel family, related to cinnamon, bay, and sassafras. Along with corn, beans, and peppers, the fruit was one of the staples of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican diet. Archaeological evidence indicates that wild avocados probably originated in South-Central Mexico and were cultivated throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America as early as 7,000 years ago.
The Aztecs called the fruit ahuacatl, the same word they used for testicle, believing them to be aphrodisiacs with male-strengthening properties. Food historian Sophie Coe tells us that avocados were critical to the low-fat Mesoamerican diet because they contain up to 30% oil. Spaniards transcribed ahuacatl to aguacate; in a 1526 report to Charles V of Spain, New World chronicler Fernández de Oviedo describes a paste similar to butter that is "very good eating."
The fears of the California industry that Mexican avocados would introduce disease and a market glut haven't materialized. In fact, the U.S. demand for avocados now far exceeds California's capacity, particularly after the crop-debilitating freezes and severe water shortages of recent years. In 2007, Tom Bellamore, then-vice president of the California Avocado Commission, said: "Our partners in Chile and Mexico are needed. ... They've earned the right to ship their product to the U.S. market." An interesting spirit of international collaboration has developed among producers, and some of the largest California packers such as West Pak, Mission Produce, Prime Produce, and Calavo now maintain plants in Michoacán. Charley Wolk, a grower who leads the Hass Avocado Board, puts it this way: "The Mexican growers are not our enemies. They are our partners."
hey man..is that avocado ice cream???