In article et,
"Charles Gifford" wrote:
"Sheldon" wrote in message
oups.com...
[ Snipped to avoid further confusion ]
I'm not quite sure of the above attributions, so bite me.

No thanks. I doubt that you're edible.

Someone is going to have validate the claim about which color skinned
avocado originated where with citations... personally I think,
considering the avocado is known to have originated some 5-6 Thousand
years BC, with no mention of any color skin whatsoever, the above claim
is a lotta hooey.

This is the best I can find:
http://www.avocado.org/avocado-facts...do-history.php

I tend to think the original avocado was light-ish green smooth
skinned, the dark pebbly skinned ie. Hass-ish being a very recent
example.

I left all the attributions in my post as it is confusing enough as it is.
My contribution to this thread was just to say that I did not say anything
about Central American avocados and explained, very quickly, why. I did not
comment on any other part of the previous poster's statements. In fact, I do
not know much about the avocados history other than the fact that their
ancestor almost certainly came from Central America and Southern Mexico. I
think your thoughts on the subject are correct. Just relying on my memory of
what I've heard over the years, are that the first avocados were not edible
as we now know them. They were small with less flesh and progressing from
hard-proceeding-to-rotten. As mar as I know, all the smooth skinned and
pebbly skinned avocados are modern varieties. In San Diego, the Fuerte was
the most common. Now it is 1. hass, 2. bacon, 3. fuerte and 4. a few other
varieties.

I have raised several trees from seed (I know, I know... I'm old
enough to know better %-) and can confirm that there's bugger all
chance of getting half decent fruit from seedling trees of even
*modern* varieties . Charlie's "hard-proceeding-to-rotten" describes
their quality quite well. ;-)

Probably more detail than you ever wanted to know about avos at
University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG213
See especially their Table 2 for characteristics of the three
ecological races (Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian).

And if that's not enough, try:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/avocado_ars.html
which is "reprinted" from the late Julia Morton's book "Fruits of Warm
Climates" -- a bible of its genre.
There you'll find lots of stuff on origin and subsequent distribution,
descriptions of varieties, marketing and storage ... Oh, there's even
a section on Food Uses. ;-)

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID