Recorded history of the avocado dates back as far as 750 BC where pits were found buried with Peruvian mummy's. In Peru, Equador and Chile it was given the Inca name Palta. In the days of Emperor Montezuma one of his conquests was the town of Ahuacatlan where records indicate that there grew a tree in the town that had little ellipsoidal fruits on it. This tree was regarded as special and the fruits on it were called Ahucate. Cortez claimed to have discovered them during his ravages. It made its way around the world over the years and picked up a few more names like agucate and the French word avocat. Even good old George Washington himself called it the agovogo pear. Long before dimpled chad became a common term alligator pear was commonly used in Florida in reference to the avocado. All were attempts to pronounce the original Aztec name Ahuacatl.

Several green skin varieties are available this month including the Bacon Fuerte and the Pinkerton variety.

The Bacon has a large pit and light yellow creamy flesh. It is mild in flavor and great for sandwiches. It remains green when ripe so don't wait for it to turn black! Just let it get soft enough to yield to gentle pressure.

The Fuerte has a slightly smaller pit and is more pear shaped than the bacon. . Fuerte in Spanish means vigorous and strong. The flavor is fantastic and the fruit peels easily when ripe. This variety remains green when it is ripe and yields to gentle pressure. It is great in salads and omelets.The Pinkerton is my absolute favorite green skinned avocado. I have seen this variety as big as a Nerf football. In the old days they were packed with odd sizes in the boxes and they were just... huge! These days they are packed more uniform in size for purposes of pricing and regulations.

This avocado runs neck n' neck with the Hass in my book. The pit is small the flavor is incredible & it peels easily. The skin is slightly pebbled and the green skin deepens as it ripens up.

This long pear shaped avocado has yellow creamy flesh when ripe and is great for salads, guacamole, or sandwiches. Try one & email me to tell me your opinion.

All of the green skin varieties will bruise easily. Buy them firm and ripen them at home in a paper bag. Throw a banana in the bag to trigger the process. Keep in mind when these green skin avocados ripen any bruising that may have occurred when firm will appear black. So pamper them and they will reward you!

Last but not least is the Hass, "the king of avocados." This variety almost never made it to the market. It seems that the grower of this avocado, Rudolph Hass, had given up on a tree that he had grafted on a piece of property that he owned in La Habra California. He was attempting to develop the perfect avocado.

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When he arrived at his acre and a half hobby farm to cut down the last trees of his failed efforts to graft these avocado varieties, he had no idea that what he was about to discover would change the avocado world forever. The year was 1931 and Rudolph had had it with trying to produce the perfect avocado from existing varieties. For six years he was working on these trees and they were complete failures.

Nurserymen had been working on avocados since the early 1800's. From Atlixco, Puebla and Mexico City to nurseries in Southern California where the Fuerte variety avocado was king.

Rudolph was not in the greatest mood when he showed up to cut down the last remaining tree. The fruit hanging on the tree was dark skinned, rough and pebbly. Not pleasing to the eye at all. Cut this thing down, call it a day, and forget about grafting avocados was all that was on Rudolph's mind. That was until a worker who had been attending the small farm gave him a ripe piece of fruit from the tree and encouraged him to try it. Rudolph reluctantly tried it and to his surprise the fruit was creamy, and smooth textured, with a nutty flavor and a high oil content. This avocado was great! His flop was a success!

Rudolph worked for the next few seasons with his new treasure. He found that the "ugly" rough skin made the fruit weather resistant and good protection for shipping. By 1935 he had taken out a patent on his "New Improved Avocado." Hass died in 1952 and never got a chance to enjoy the success of his miracle child. In fact altogether he made little less than $40,000.

Today the "Hass" variety avocado is the number one produced avocado in the US and just about the most popular avocado in the world. With commercial production in South America, Mexico, New Zealand to name a few, tens of millions of trees all around the globe all come from that one single tree that was about to be cut down on Hass Ranch in 1931. What if his field attendant had called in sick that day and Rudolph went ahead with his plans to cut it down? Oh yeah, by the way, that same tree still stands today.