Garden Update -- Avocado Trees

It is the end of May and our avocado trees have finished with their flowering and fruit has set.  Above is a picture of a Lamb Hass avocado that I took yesterday morning as the sun very conveniently provided me a spotlight right on the young fruit.  A great write up of the history of the Lamb Hass avocado and its bearing patterns are the Yard Posts blog, which I have found to be a good resource on all things avocado. 

Young fruit on our Reed avocado, which is somewhat behind the Lamb Hass.  The sun was not quite so accommodating for my Reed picture.  But, you can already see the round shape of the Reeds as opposed to the more oval or pear shape of the Lamb Hass.  These avocados will be ready to pick in about a year.  I suppose one thing that has surprised me about the mature fruit from these trees is just how big the avocados are.  The Reeds will grow to softball size and the Lamb's are as big or bigger.  Both are excellent eating. 

Garden Update

Our cara cara tree was prolific this year -- about 80 oranges.  We picked a lot of the bounty today, but have been eating them for some time. These oranges are, I think, better than the regular Washington navels.  They are just as sweet but with a light tanginess.  Less than a tangarine, but more than regular navel.    Plus the color of the flesh is this deep orangy/red.  

The cara cara has an interesting history.   They are thought to be a cross between a Washington navel and a Bahia navel orange that grows in Brazil.  The orange was discovered in 1976 naturally growing at Hacienda Cara Cara in Venezuela.  So, the cara cara was an unplanned naturally growing hybrid.  It has been grown in the US since the 1980's but is still a speciality item in stores and restaurants.

Here is the Kona Sharwill avocado I picked a couple weeks back.  It seemed ripe enough, so we cut into it today and had it for lunch. This was my first avocado from our 3-4 year old tree.  The seed is a little smaller than other varieties and I thought the taste was excellent, just a bit different from our Fuerte avocados.  Also, this was much easier to peel since the peel on the Sharwill is thicker than the Fuertes.  We have been eating the Fuertes since late December and it is fun to have a slightly different avocado to try. There are a few more fruit on the Sharwill and I am going to leave them for couple more weeks before picking to see if the taste changes at all.   

I am watching the stone fruit trees for flowers and our Eva's Pride Peach is first up.  This tree really produced last year and we had jam, ice cream and froze some peaches.  Hopefully around late June we will have some peaches off this tree.  

Hawaiian Avocado

Pictured above are five smooth skinned Fuerte avocados and one smaller deep green Sharwil avocado -- all from our yard.  Our Fuerte tree is mature and we've been eating Fuertes now for more than a month.  Our Kona Sharwil tree, though, was only planted a few years old and the fruit above is the first I've picked from the tree. That makes today a big day.

I am calling the Sharwil my Hawaiian avocado because the Sharwil avocado is what is primarily grown in Hawaii as a commercial avocado crop.  It is reported to be high in oil content and is "considered by some to be the worlds best" avocado.  One site says that USDA restrictions prevent shipping the avocado to the mainland for sale.   But, a Big Island grower says restrictions lifted in 2018 and they do ship Sharwils to mainland US.  Either way, I'm growing one here.

The Kona part of the name I get.  But "Sharwil?"  Apparently the avocado variety was first developed in Australia by Mssrs. Sharp and Williams -- hence the avocado name of "Sharwil."  Kind of disappointing to me.  I was hoping maybe it was a reference to Hawaiian royalty.

I haven't actually tasted a Sharwil yet.  The fruit pictured above is the first I've picked from our tree. Can't wait for it to ripen. 

Our Kona Sharwil tree has had some challenges.  Our Reed and Fuerte trees have done OK with days where we have unusually hot (116 a couple years ago) or cold (in the 30's for us).  However, the Sharwil is bit more delicate than those trees and two years ago it got badly burned.   It seems healthy now and I hope we get a bit more growth this year.  I planted the Sharwil and Reed at the same time and the Sharwil is now maybe a third the size of the Reed.