Old avocado groves in California have been chainsawed and turned into houses throughout the past hundred years. I’m grateful that some are still standing. How does it feel, what do you see, and what do you hear inside one of these living museums?
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Wow, what fun Greg! I grew up in San Diego, and we made a few trips a year to my aunt and uncle’s house in either Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, or not sure exactly. They had a backyard full of avocado trees. Might have been only an acre, but it seemed endless to me. Easy to climb trees and lots of places to hide. Little boy heaven for sure!!
Thanks for the memory.
Greg – love this video. I’ve also spent some time in these groves. I would love to buy some of this land and preserve it as old groves. Do you have any advice on how to start looking around for such places?
Thanks
Hi Kevin,
I have met a few real estate agents who specialize in avocado groves. I can try to find names if you like.
Hello Kevin,
My name is Richard Cadway and I’m a real estate broker in San Diego. I grow lots of types of avocados and I have a friend, Charlie, who bought an avocado grove in Ramona and built a house on the land and has hundreds of big trees. The land was part of a larger grove and was sold to Charlie due to the aging owner down sizing. I also know a guy in Vista who bought an old avocado grove and planted Cherimoya trees, but kept a few old avocado trees.
One of the biggest considerations is water and of course, cost. Too much land and too many trees it would need to be a business. If you have an idea of what you want, send me a message – info@viewhomerealty.com. Greg knows me – we both love avocados!
Hi Matt,
So true that you don’t need a hundred acres of these trees to feel the magic. One of my best friends growing up lived in a house surrounded by just a couple acres of old Fuertes and we never tired of climbing them and exploring under them. If you have just one old Fuerte, it can umbrella over an entire city lot!
The older groves are beautiful to visit, but there are now restrictions on (most) of the avocado groves, because of contamination to the soil covering the shallow root systems.
As a teen, I worked a 48 acre avo/citrus grove inn the 60’s. During picking season you could walk thru the quiet groves and only hear an occasional wild pheasant or hawks hiding in the branches of the old trees. It was so quiet, it was like being in a church.
That 48 acre grove, is now a few hundred custom homes. It was sad to see the old homesteaded acreage let go to the real estate companies. The price of water, laborers, and the greed to sell to new home builders, is killing the farming in North County.
Hi John,
I get sad every time I drive the 15 through North County (“Avocado Highway”) and see the skeleton trees on hillsides in Escondido and near Deer Springs and the massive development northeast of the interchange with the 76. But I know that groves have been coming and going since the beginning.
There’s the grove you worked in the ’60s. Around that same time where my parents grew up in L.A. County, avocado and citrus groves were turning into houses and schools and shopping centers. Before then, there were even groves in places like Hollywood. My great great grandfather had a small grove on his property by the L.A. Zoo.
For some reason it makes me less sad to remember that this transformation has always been happening. I still daydream about having a gagillion dollars and buying up current groves to keep them from being developed!
HI Greg: I passed my high school years (mid-60s) in Carlsbad; so many small groves then, now all residential. There used to be many large home yards in Oceanside as well with avos, citrus, and macadania. I remember my father taking me to visit a business friend who had a couple of acres in Fire Mountain in O’side. The University of Calif had contracted with him to grow all three of the list above. That was when I learned to love macadamias. People used to leave boxes of avos by the street for free in that area. If some readers here don’t have access to avos, they can contact the local packing plants from whom they should be able to purchase one box or more whenever they want, and you can select the size of avo as well indicated by the number in the box. Price is always fluctuating. I enjoy you Posts!
Hello Kelly,
Greg is selling avocados and, knowing Greg, what he sells would be premium. The pickers, packing plants, etc. throw and toss the fruit and bruise it, so by the time you get it, it is nasty. There is no better fruit than that grown and hand picked by a fruit lover. I ran out of my own cados in January (my big Fuerte hardly produced) and bought a bag from Costco to see how they were. The bag indicated Hass, but absolutely were not Hass. 3 out of 5 were not edible and the other 2 were blah. Greg grows and sells the best varieties!
FUERTE COMPANIONS: i wrote this mail bu)lengthy:” but It disappeared.I last week severelay trimmmed a 40-60+ year old Fuerte a sad it does make me a bit sick. Done by skilled arborist aovcado tries., Very frustrated. So nervouse. Last years reduced 16 and previously 120 fruit.I l pan to fertilize 2x year but a considering planting another sampler BACON or REED avocado too promote cross fertilization as bees are’tn so healthy and hummingbirds awe few. My lot is about 30” an 45”, Anybody advice would br appreciated.Thanks Greg.. Quite nervous in Oceanside