April 25, 2025—The reaction felt abrupt, but fair: “Doesn’t everyone already know California avocados are awesome?”
That’s my most trusted confidant (and fellow avocado enthusiast) talking, as she wonders what a press junket to Camarillo, California, hosted by the California Avocado Commission, could prove, beyond the self-evident.
She has a point.
California avocado awesomeness isn’t exactly new to me either.
I’m the same CA native who grew up climbing my grandparents’ tree to pluck football-sized fruit until the wheelbarrow filled to tipping over, and the same avocado hombre who was advocating for its candidacy as the state fruit before now-Gov. Gavin Newsom christened it.
Part of my pitch was that “most every California omelet, California roll and California sandwich rocks avocado, and [then there’s] the added fact guacamole is a godsend.”
(More #guacrock soon.)
Put differently, I experience anxiety if there isn’t a ripe avocado in my kitchen at any given moment.
That’s part of what makes California avocados special.
It’s impossible to always have them around.
But already understanding avocado awesomeness wasn’t about to stop me from finding out more ways to do it.
Now, as a brisk day-and-a-half avo-odyssey wraps—after swinging through acres of groves, tapping an inspired guac-off, and channeling the texture of avocado mousse—I have a number of replies to her question.
Answer #1: Yes, everyone knows California avocados are awesome, but not with the deserved depth.
Newsflash: Avocados are healthy, creamy and crave-able.
Versatile too: To wit, in the last 12 hours, the tour-attending media and industry partners tried them grilled and stuffed, smashed with chocolate and corn, baked into brownies, dished on steaks and seafood, and topped with dragonfruit and mango.
The team charged with promoting them isn’t shying away from those angles.
Yet the commission is choosing to emphasize place and practices over pop on the plate, spotlighting product through the lens of the growers and their habits, to differentiate California “alligator pears” from imports that dominate volume.
Commission VP of Marketing Terry Splane notes metrics show audiences are responding to messaging that’s shifted from California lifestyle themes—think Santa Monica Pier with surf and sand imagery—to more soil-centric.
“It’s family farms, investing in what they know,” he says.
That thought arrives as the grove tour tunes into the confluence of dirt and climate that allows for the harvest.
As we bump through the specific sort of heaven that is a thriving forest of avocado and lemon trees, seated in a wagon pulled by a tractor, Splane lays out a few of his favorite descriptors for what they want to highlight: “They’re locally grown, sustainably farmed and ethically sourced!”
Then fifth generation Camlam farmer Bert Lamb adds his take: “You got all the buzz words in one sentence.”
Answer #2: Yes, California avocados are awesome, but they’re also an awesome underdog.
Even in a banner 2025, wherein California is projected to produce a bumper crop of 375 million pounds—the largest in 5 years—it still shares a humble 10% of the global market with countries like Peru, Chile and Colombia.
Mexico supplies a full 90%, as in billions of pounds of aguacate.
But CA pros, who harvest 95% of the country’s avocados, are cool with that.
“Mexico’s growers are really important to our [U.S.] industry,” Bert Lamb says. “It allows chefs to keep them on the menu, and grocers to keep them in stores.”
California is steadily increasing its output by way of roughly 300,000 new trees planted annually over the last decade.
Those 3 million additional trees also up overall productivity because increasingly popular varietals, like the Gem avocado—which trends slightly larger and rounder than Hass avocados, with a lightly nutty flavor and slower oxidization timelines—can be planted closer together.
“For me, the main point there is that it’s a viable crop where major investors are still getting into it,” says Splane. “If Mother Nature cooperates, we expect to see that trend to continue.”
Answer #3: Yes, but unlocking new expressions of avocado is a delicious use of time.
The proudest avocado moment of my 20s happened through a friendly salsa showdown at Marinus Vineyard in Cachagua, hosted by vineyard manager Matt Shea.
My recipe pushed the boundaries of conventional, with smashed avocado and ripe banana, tomato, honey and hot sauce, and won a place on the judges podium for Best Karma.
But ever since I’ve trended more and more (and more) simple with my guacamole, as in salt and citrus, nothing else. Not even a little onion.
So when our tour group gathered for a guacamole competition, and the teams were presented with a battery of inputs ranging from shredded coconut to Tajin salt to rainbow radish, I got anxious.
Maybe the best remains the simplest, but how can we not incorporate at least some bacon jam?
Thankfully my teammates, Edible Ojai and Ventura County publisher Tami Chu and her illustrator Maia Chu, along with Buzzfeed LA filmmakers Monica Moore-Suriyage and Erik Fashingbauer, judiciously added red onion (diced fine, which is important), mango and even a little dragonfruit, to give what remained a classic take some uncanny zuzz.
My contribution was to add as much lemon from the Camlam’s own trees as my team would tolerate, then add more when they weren’t looking.
When the judges awarded us top honors in the Freshest Flavor category, which sounds the most important award for the true avocado lovers out there, it felt like a reminder on what matters most in a glorious guacamole.
Answer #4: Yes, but they are getting awesomer, with the help of old-fashioned science.
Camlam Farms enjoys a close and long-running collaboration with UC Riverside researchers who have field-tested a swath of avocado varietal in its soils. Those include the increasing popular Lamb Hass, so named by UCR’s team in honor of their partners.
“It was a lot of work!” Bert Lamb says, “And we helped them quite a bit, over a lot of time, so it’s very nice that they honored that effort.”
Answer #5: Yes, but there are unseen strategies involved in remaining awesome.
The promotional piece is only half of California Avocado Commission’s mission.
The complementary half happens with its industry and affairs arm, which connects with government bodies, tracks and informs regulations, measures harvest outputs, and advocates around policy, among other efforts.
Put differently, if your version of avocado-nerd awesomeness involves statistics, pricing and databases, this will whet your appetite.
A number of resources for the interested are available publicly through the California Avocado Growers website, with insight ranging from constantly updated market stats to maturity release dates, with a loaded library of research to dig into as well.
Answer #6: Yes, they are awesome, but they are also fleeting.
California avocado season won’t last forever.
More at californiaavocado.com and californiaavocadogrowers.com.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
