Monterey County scored a victory of sorts when artichokes were named the state’s official vegetable in 2013, as about 80 percent of the U.S. crop is grown in the county.
But travel across the nation, and even abroad, and you won’t find artichokes in a California roll, a California burger, a California scramble or whatever else “California.” What they share is avocado, the state’s official fruit.
What many do not know is Monterey County has avocados, too.
On the western side of the Salinas Valley, down near Gonzalez and Soledad, about 240 acres of avocado orchards roll over the hills west of River and Foothill roads. That’s hardly a lot – wine grapes, many of which grow in the same area, are planted on over 40,000 acres in the county – but it’s still enough to get your local avocado fix four months out of the year.
Will Brokaw of Brokaw Farms grows 12.5 acres on the hills west of Soledad, at what he believes is the first avocado orchard in Monterey County. His parents first planted it in 1967. On eight of those acres, Brokaw grows a varietal rarely found in supermarkets: Gwen.
“Gwen avocados are my favorite variety,” Brokaw says, citing their high fat content and slightly stronger flavor. “And they mature later than Hass, which allows us to extend our harvest into the fall and early winter.”
Brokaw grows several varieties (but not Gwen) at his family’s original farm in Santa Paula, near Ventura, and you can find all his avocados locally at the Monterey Peninsula College Farmers Market. Tasting the Gwens makes Brokaw’s praises ring true – they are superb.
Act fast: While 2013 was a bumper year for local avocados, seeing their production skyrocket 421 percent, the 2014 crop was frost-bitten, killing much of the fruit. Brokaw normally offers Gwens until mid-January, but this year he’ll likely stop selling them at the end of October. After that, he’ll have Reed avocados from the Soledad orchard for about two weeks.
“Last year was a freak year,” he says. “The amount of fruit on the trees was unsustainable.”
Brokaw also offers a nugget of wisdom for those hoping to grow their own: Forget what you heard about needing both a male and female tree in order to bear fruit.
“It’s a common urban legend,” Brokaw says. “I think the people who invented that are the retail nurseries.”
At the Old Monterey Farmers Market, Don Rego slings Hass, zutano and bacon varietals – with overlapping harvest seasons running April through February – from his Watsonville ranch.
To find local avocados seven days a week, one can head to the Wharf Marketplace in Monterey; it sells Hass avocados from the Gonzales orchard of Manuel Amaral. And while Amaral, like Brokaw, says his avocado crop usually runs into January, his crop is down to 5 percent of last year’s volume due to the winter freeze, and his crop will be off the tree by the end of October.
“Next year should be better,” Amaral says. “This year was the direct effect of the cold.”
Amaral started growing avocados as an experiment (it was so long ago he can’t remember when), planting trees to see if they’d grow on his land. The results is rich, subtle and hard to stop eating. It has qualities Amaral says you can’t get from an avocado picked for long-distance shipping – he picks his as late as possible for maximum oil content and flavor.
But given how much easier it is to buy avocados from the store that have been picked in faraway places year-round, is local fruit really worth the extra effort?
Amaral thinks so. “They’re not just great,” he says. “They’re the best.” Tasting his Hass and Brokaw’s Gwen, it’s hard to argue otherwise.