U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue visits Rancho Guejito Avocado Farm, near San Diego, in Escondido, CA, on Monday, on July 15.
Secretary Perdue meets with California Avocado Commission Chairman John Lamb, CAC Treasurer Rob Grether, CAC President Tom Bellamore, CAC Vice President of Industry Affairs Ken Melban, Rancho Guejito General Manager Al Stehly. Then they will tour the groves.
Rancho Guejito is one of the 800 land grant ranches given by the Mexican Provincial Governor in 1845. Rancho Guejito has expanded from its original 13,298 acres to 36 square miles of land. In addition to the Hass avocado grove, the ranch is home to almost 2,000 grass-fed cattle and many hundreds of acres of citrus and a vineyard. Their goal is to continue to ranch and farm the land as it has been for almost 175 years.
In this area, Hass avocado trees can bear two harvests at a time. It takes about 18 months for the fruit to grow to a marketable size. Avocados do not ripen until they are picked, so producers can store their avocados alive and growing in their tree until they decide it is the best to harvest. Secretary Perdue picked one of the last avocados from the recent harvest. Most seen on these trees will be harvested months from now or next year.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
. Original public domain image from Flickr