A thought for National Avocado Day: “The avocado is a food without rival among the fruits, the veritable fruit of paradise.”
So said early 20th-century adventurer and U.S. Department of Agriculture botanist, David Fairchild, when he introduced the gorgeous fruits to the U.S. And he was right. Avocados are creamy, delicious, vitamin-heavy symbols of nature offering us the good life at a bargain price. All this, plus their versatile value for your body both inside and out make avocados well worth celebrating, as we do every July 31 on National Avocado Day.
NATIONAL AVACADO DAY TIMELINE
- 8000BC
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Avocados eaten in Mexico
Archaeologists have found evidence that wild avocados were gathered and eaten in central Mexico.
3000BC
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Avocado trees grown
Researchers believe that Mesoamerican tribes like the Inca, the Olmec and the Maya grew domesticated avocado trees.
1696
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The avocado is named
Naturalist, Sir Hans Sloane, names “the avocado or alligator pear-tree” in his catalog of Jamaican plants.
1833
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Welcome to the U.S.
Horticulturist, Henry Perrine, first plants avocados in Florida.1950s
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Into the mainstream
Avocados become commercially available in the U.S., with people mostly adding them to salads.
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NATIONAL AVOCADO DAY ACTIVITIES
1. Break the guacamole barrier. If you’re creative in the kitchen, the avocado and the blender are your friends. Blend it with some bananas and cocoa powder and you’ll have chocolate pudding. Blend it with some garlic, olive oil, salt and lemon juice, and you’ve got salad dressing. If you want to make something with a fresh healthy fat, reach for an avo!
2. Have an avowed-makeover. Mashed avocado with banana and olive oil make a great hair conditioning paste. Mash it up with some olive oil, honey and yogurt and you have an ideal facial mask. Dry up the pit and grind it up with some avocado flesh and salt to create an exfoliating foot scrub. Treat yourself!
3. Nurture the pit and grow a house plant. Just clean off the huge seed, pierce it with three toothpicks and submerge it right-side up in a glass of water. In about eight weeks it’ll start to sprout, and when your avocado tree is six inches long, you can plant it in soil. Just be sure to keep it on a sunny windowsill. They love that natural light!
5 TASTY FACTS ABOUT AVOCADOS
1. Super treat. Football fans consume 53.5 million pounds of guacamole on Super Bowl Sundays.
2. Berry good. Because it’s a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary, an avocado is actually a berry.
3. They’re #1. Avocados contain the most protein and fiber of any fruit.
4. Count’em. There are 1,062 varieties of avocado.
5. Gator guac. In Jamaica, avocados were once called “alligator pears.”
WHY WE LOVE NATIONAL AVOCADO DAY
1. They are extremely healthy. Avocados played a huge role in the health food revival in the U.S. a generation ago and for good reason. They’re packed with potassium to keep your blood pressure lower, oleic acid for reducing inflammation, fiber for your metabolism and antioxidants that keep your eyes healthy.
2. They’ll make you look good.Fresh avocados have some ancient anti-aging secrets inside of them. You can use both the luxurious, creamy flesh as well as the mineral-packed pit of the avocado to condition your hair, moisturize your skin, remove your makeup, and treat your wrinkles.
3. They’re incredibly versatile in the kitchen.Avocados are nothing if not a culinary imagination booster! We’re not just talking guacamole and toast. You can use them as a base for salad dressing, chilled soup, ice cream, pudding, pasta sauce, bread and lots more.
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