It's Avocado Season!

I know that any more, there are no real "seasons" for produce.  Produce is shipped in pretty much year-round from places like Chile (where the seasons are opposite ours) or the Middle East (where my understanding is that it's summer year-round).  Nevertheless, the quality of the produce suffers greatly from being shipped.  It's never as good as a properly ripe, local (or local-ish) bit of in-season produce.

I keep calling the avocado "produce" because I'm not honestly sure what else to call it.  Technically, the avocado is a fruit.  If you want to get REALLY technical about it, it is that subset of fruits that we call "berries."  And yet, if I referred to avocados as berries, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't go over well.

So let's just call them "avocados" and leave it at that.

In the United States, almost all the commercial avocados are grown in California.  According to Wikipedia, California accounts for 95% of the country's avocado production.  Most of the avocados you find at the grocery store are the Hass variety, but there are a lot of other varieties in the world.  If you have the chance to try a different avocado variety, you should definitely jump at the chance.  I have found that non-Hass avocados are hard to find, and difficult to predict (at least here in the Pacific Northwest) but always delicious and interesting.

Although avocados have a bad rap for being "too fatty," most vegetarians are doing pretty well on the dietary fat front.  Most people's fat intake comes from eating meat, so we have a little more latitude in that direction!

Also, an avocado's fat is "the good kind."  Much like olive oil, the fat in avocados has the ability to lower the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood, and raise the levels of good cholesterol.  And aside from this, avocados have a lot of great nutritional content.  They have more potassium than bananas, and a significant amount of folate, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin.

There are a lot of different ways to prepare and serve avocado.  I'll be honest with you, 9 out of 10 avocados that come into my house end up being eaten at the kitchen counter with a spoon.  I always intend to do something awesome with them, but when it comes right down to it, cutting it in half, picking out the pit, and sprinkling it with a bit of salt almost always wins!

Guacamole is probably the most popular usage for avocados.  Just mash up some avocado along with minced garlic, onion, and cilantro, and add a dash of lime juice, lemon juice, or vinegar.  Add salt to taste, and a dash of pepper, and you're set!  This is an excellent accompaniment to plain tortilla chips, or a topping for nachos.

Avocado also works well in sandwiches, although it takes a bit of slicing dexterity.  You can buy avocado slicers, but the best way to get tidy avocado slices is to slice it while it's still in the skin.  Then carefully use a spoon to scoop the slices out of the skin.  You may mush a few by accident, but then again, that's always  my excuse for just eating them plain!

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user The Rocketeer