Temecula, CA — The California Avocado Commission hosted a guided avocado grove tour Saturday, May 3, to educate industry members on the growing and packing process of California avocados — from the plant to the plate.

With spring through early fall marking the peak of the 2014 California avocado season, the state is expected to produce approximately 90 percent of the nation's crop, with the Hass variety accounting for approximately 95 percent of the total crop volume.Alex Gonzalez, principal of Persea Tree Nursery in Fallbrook, CA, with Jan DeLyser, vice president of marketing for CAC.

On hand to guide the grove tour — which included trade media, food bloggers, restaurant and supermarket representatives, dietitians and nutritionists — was Jan DeLyser, vice president of marketing for CAC.

The tour began at Persea Tree Nursery, in Fallbrook, CA, which consists of 30 acres of land and 50,000 square feet of greenhouses, and develops top-quality clonal and seedling grafted avocados. Alex Gonzalez, principal of the nursery, guided the group through his property and greenhouses, as he explained the propagation process for creating new avocado trees.

“When you plant a seedling from an actual seed, you never know what you are going to get,” said Gonzalez. He added that his nursery looks for two important traits in avocado plants — how they handle salty water, and root rot, or fungus that attacks the root system. If the trees can survive these conditions, they then become mother trees and are used to reproduce seeds, Gonzales explained.

The process of developing the plant roots at the nursery takes about seven to eight months and is then shipped to farms to be planted and harvested.

“You have to be a smart farmer,” Gonzalez said. “You have to do your research. We try to help the grower along and let them know how they can improve their production. Avocados are so different from growing other crops. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can really struggle.”

From Persea Nursery, the tour group was shuttled to Sierra Pacific Farms, in the hills above Temecula, where Scott McIntyre, owner and chief executive officer, as well as his wife, Debbie, and son, Hayden, showed attendees around their 112-acre farm.

As a third-generation farmer who has worked in the California avocado industry for more than 30 years, McIntyre now oversees the management of more than 5,000 acres of avocado and lemon groves in Riverside, San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and has worked closely with CAC since its inception, serving as board chairman for three years, and vice chairman for an additional three years.

McIntyre kicked off the grove tour by informing the group that “no two years are the same” when it comes to growing avocados. As for this season, he said the main challenge is the state’s current drought situation.

So far this year, California has only received six inches of rainfall when the typical amount is around 16 inches. Despite those numbers, “our crop is normal,” he stated, adding that they will be picking fruit from late March through September.

After tour group members tried their hands at picking avocados off the trees (which isn’t nearly as easy as one might think), the group was treated to an avocado-centric lunch, featuring California avocado turnovers, tater tots, turkey patties and Panna cotta, among other avo-licious dishes.

Registered dietician Katie Ferraro, who has partnered with CAC, also gave a demonstration on how to prepare easy snack recipes featuring California avocados that can be incorporated into a healthy diet.

“Every year, I look forward to the California avocado season because they lend themselves to so many different preparations,” Ferraro said. “For this summer, I’ve created a collection of snacks recipes that are as easy to put together, as they are delicious.”

Each of Ferraro’s recipes contained less than 100 calories per serving and can be found on CaliforniaAvocado.com

After lunch, the group headed to its final stop of the day — West Pak Avocado Inc. in Murrieta. The packing facility, founded in 1982, is one of the industry’s leading grower-packer-shippers of quality avocados.

Trevor Newhouse, vice president of operations, along with other members of the West Pak team, guided the group on an informative tour of the company’s new 115,000-square-foot cutting-edge packing facility, complete with advanced sorting technologies that allow for accurate delineation of sizing and ripeness for incoming avocados.

From those who develop the roots, to those who plant them, pack them and promote them, one thing is very clear — California is extremely passionate about producing and shipping a top-quality avocado crop. Avocados are not only a nutrient-packed fruit and food staple in many homes and restaurants across California, as well as the United States, but also a way of life for those in the Golden State.