Brokaw Ranch Company farms in both Santa Paula, Coastal Southern California and in Soledad, on Californias’ Central Coast. Unlike the inland San Juaquin Valley, both Santa Paula & Soledad are close to the ocean and enjoy its tempering effect on temperature extremes; we rarely experience extreme heat or cold. And, that being the case, both regions are ideal for subtropical tree fruit production.

Typically, subtropical tree fruits are non-deciduous, meaning that they don’t lose their leaves in the winter like stone-fruit, apples & grapes. Avocados, citrus and more exotic fruit-trees such as mangos, lychees & cherimoyas, are in this category. Successful production of avocados and many of our more exotic fruit trees is confined to Californias’ Central & South Coasts; they won’t statistically produce fruit or survive inland temperature extremes. Interestingly citrus, which is hardier, can produce successfully in the San Juaquin Valley.

AVOCADOS

The overall California avocado harvest season starts late December in San Diego County and might continue through early July in the central coast. Mature avocados can hang on their trees for 4-5 months before spontaneously dropping; so the farmer doesn’t have to harvest them all at once. Avocados don’t store well off of the tree so, once the domestic harvest is complete, imports become the only option.

Brokaw, however, finds itself in slightly different circumstances. While avocados harvested in December & January taste & ripen OK, they haven’t yet developed the oil content that will render a superb eating experience. That is why we don’t start our harvest until mid-February. A disappointing characteristic of less mature avocados is that they transition from being too firm to too soft very quickly; they seem to hurry through that ideal ripeness “sweet spot”. Yet Brokaw avocados, allowed to mature for an additional couple more months, will ripen to an ideal softness, linger at the “sweet spot” and maintain it for several days if refrigerated. They’re tastier, easier to use and be can held and eaten when you want, with perfect results.

We’re also blessed to be able to grow the Gwen variety on the Central Coast. The Gwen is a Hass like variety that matures and harvests later than does the Hass. And Soledad avocados, by virtue of “northness”, harvest later than do those of Santa Paula; the combined result is a much later harvest window. We don’t even start the Gwen harvest until August and it can continue into early November. It allows us to purvey what is arguably the best ripening & tasting avocado that we know of into a time window crowded with imports and with almost no domestic production. The Gwen Avocado is the most beloved by our Farmers’ Market retail, direct restaurant & distributor clients and provides a great & positive finale for our avocado season.

CARMEN AVOCADOS

Also known as a Carmen Mendez, this Hass-like variety has a dark, pebbly skin and matures a little earlier than the Hass. We grow them in Santa Paula and they’re usually the first variety that we harvest at the beginning of each season. They ripen beautifully and have a buttery texture & great flavor. Interestingly, they tend to produce off-blooms. A small percentage of the flowers set fruit before the rest, allowing them to mature early. And the fruit is easy to distinguish as these avocados are bigger and have a comparatively dull sheen. Though off blooms might make up less than 5% of a Carmens’ crop, they can be harvested as early as January with excellent ripening & flavor results. When they’re available, we would purvey these at our Farmers’ Markets as early as mid-January.

HASS AVOCADOS

This is the worlds’ staple avocado. 99% plus of commercial avocado grove acreage is Hass. Interestingly enough it was patented in 1935 by La Habra Heights postman Rudolph Hass and my great uncle, nurseryman Harold Brokaw. It started out as an ungrafted volunteer in Hasss’ back yard, it was allowed to bear fruit, Hass really liked the fruit and he patented it with my Uncle Harold. To this day, fruit variety patent royalties aren’t collected on fruit sales but rather on that of the nursery stock, which is where Uncle Harold came in. Ironically, green skin avocados were heavily favored over dark skinned varieties at the time and continued to be into the 60s & 70s; by the time the Hass became the dominant variety, the patent had long since expired.

Depending on the Carmen crop, we start each avocado season harvesting either the Hass or the Carmen in mid February and purvey the first ripe fruit at our Farmers’ Markets before the end of the month.

We harvest the Santa Paula Hass on & off from mid-February through the beginning of July. We do so on and off because we often harvest other varieties, such as the Gem, intermittently within the same period. We also grow about 4 acres of Hass in Soledad which we start harvesting in August and are able to carry well into September; we are very fortunate to be able to have an 8 month harvest window for such an iconic & superb avocado variety.

GEM AVOCADOS

Though many commercially produced fruit-types, such as apples, are available in numerous variety options, the avocado industry has consistently put all of its eggs in one basket with the Hass. The reason for this is no mystery to industry insiders. Getting retail avocado customers to even consider trying a non-Hass is like pulling teeth. And the cost for a farmer to change production from Hass to a “competitive” variety is enormous; producing Hass acreage, which had already been developed & planted and which took 5-6 years to produce profitably, would have to be removed or top-worked, replanted and then allowed to mature for another 5-6 years. Other than UC Riverside avocado researches telling us that our lack of variety diversification puts us at risk of a catastrophic blight, similar to that associated with the Irish Potato Famine, there is almost zero support for non-Hass variety introduction.

While the Hass is a great variety for a lot of reasons, it does have its downsides from a growers’ standpoint. Firstly, it tends to alternately bear; that is, it produces heavier and then lighter every other year. And to make matters worse, all California production tends to be on the same heavy/light production cycle, leading to great year-to-year variations in domestic supply; this causes cash-flow & staffing issues for farmers and big price swings for consumers. Secondly, Hass fruit tends to hang at the trees’ periphery, making it more vulnerable to sun, heat-wave & extreme cold damage.

The Gem Avocado was developed by UC Riverside professor Grey E Martin, who named it after his initials. It is literally a grand-daughter variety of a Hass. In a university trial, a Hass seed was planted, resulting in a tree which produced what they named the Thille Avocado variety. Then a Thille seed was planted and its tree produced the Gem variety; researchers favored the Gem for having industry production potential characteristics and decided to patent it.

The Gem has dark pebbly skin like the Hass, is bigger in size, harvests at about the same time and, thus far, has enjoyed more consumer acceptance than any competing variety introduced thus far. And, unlike the Hass, it produces more steadily year-to-year, without the heavy production swings. And it tends to set fruit within the leaf canopy, better protecting it from the sun and temperature extremes.

The Gem is super high in fat, ripens beautifully and tastes great. We produce the vast majority in Santa Paula but have a few trees in Soledad as well. We normally purvey them from April to June.

REED AVOCADOS

What do many people envision when they hear the term “tropical avocado”? I personally imagine a big, bright green, round & thin-skinned fruit that doesn’t ripen reliably, has a watery texture and is mild in flavor. The Reed Avocado, an old heirloom California variety, is misleading as it mirrors some of these characteristics. It is very big, green & round and definitely presents as a tropical avocado that will render a mediocre eating experience. But once it ripens, one discovers that they were completely mislead. Firstly, it turns out that the skin is definitely thick & protective. Secondly it cleanly separates from the skin and slices cleanly like butter. And lastly, biting into it betrays an immaculate texture and a superb flavor; in fact, the blissful experience might be exaggerated as expectations were so very low.

At the beginning of every Reed seasons, many Farmers’ Market retail clients hesitate to transition to them, due to their appearance and size. But within a week or 2, after the hesitating have had a chance to ripen & eat them, they are unanimously accepted & coveted.

We grow all of our Reeds in Santa Paula and harvest them from June through August. Most of our acreage is young and, when they grow enough to be productive, they will bridge our supply gap between the end of the Santa Paula Hass harvest and the start of the Soledad Gwens.

GWEN AVOCADO

This is another Professor Grey E Martin, UC Riverside variety. As you might recall, a tree planted from a Hass seed produced the Thille variety and a Thille seed grew into the tree that produced the original Gem. However, in the same university seed trials, another Thill seed grew into the tree that produced the Gwen Avocado variety, named after Professor Martins’ wife. So the Gwen is literally a granddaughter variety of the Hass and a sister to the Gem.
The Gwen is like a green-skinned Gem; its skin is thick and pebbly and the fruit is slightly bigger & rounder than a Hass. Unlike the Gem, it was eventually determined to be unsuitable as a potential Hass competitor. In fact, it seems to have all but disappeared as no nurseries appear to be propagating them.

Luckily, due to Hank & Ellen Brokaws’ innovative nature, 8 acres of older Bacon & Zutano trees were “top-worked” to the Gwen variety in Soledad; this happened in 1991, before the variety completely fell into oblivion. Yet the Gwen has since proved to be the most beloved avocado variety by our Farmers’ Market retail, direct restaurant and distributor clients alike.

The Gwen is an ideal ripener, has a texture that feels good to slice into and is superb in flavor. And it oxidizes slowly, meaning that it will stay bright green after having been cut into for longer than any other variety of which I’m aware. This makes it easier to use for all types of clients, home, business & commercial.

By virtue of the fact that it matures later than does the Hass and that we grow them in Soledad, a good 250 miles north of the predominate avocado producing area, we’re able to harvest & purvey them from August through October, well after the vast majority of California avocados have been harvested & consumed. The Brokaw grown Soledad Gwens are a beacon for avocado lovers when the only alternative is under-mature imports, aged & degraded by the industrial supply chain.