Avocados and Chicos in my Orchard

Today, we harvested about a dozen huge avocados and two dozens of Chicos in my orchard here at Chateau Du Mer(CDM), Boac, Marinduque, Philippines.

This is the first time that I was able to harvest the fruits of the avocado tree that I planted in my garden here at CDM in 1998. There is only one tree but the past years according to our Resident Caretaker, hundreds of fruits have been harvested by them. According to the manager the fruits are tasty( maligat) but a little fibrous but it is still excellent for making avocado shake. Today’s harvest is still not ripe. It will be a couple of days for it to ripen and for me to taste the fruit of my labor. I have my own recipe of Avocado Shake. The ingredients are as follows:

1 ripe large Avocado ( Hash or Philippines variety preferred)
2 teaspoons white sugar( or 1/8 cup condense milk)
1/4 cup Half and Half ( or milk if less fat is desired)

Blend the mixture until all the avocados chunks are homogenous and creamy. Add water if you want the mixture not too creamy. Refrigerate for one hour and served cold. Blend the mixture with ice cubes if there is no time for refrigeration.

Green mangoes, chicos, papaya and Avocados from my Garden

On the other hand I have two chico trees that are prolific. Every year during our snowbirding sojourn, we harvested more than 100 fruits from each tree. This year the big fruits are on top of the tree which required climbing. More often by the time we realized there are fruits ready to be harvested the fruit bats and birds have already taken a bite so that we have to discard the fruit. Today however, I requested our 18-year old gardener to take 15 minutes off from his gardening duties and devote this time climbing the chico tree. He was able to harvest 2 dozen mature fruits. I was able to eat one chico that ripened in the tree without the birds and the bats leaving their mark. Tree-ripened chico fruit is delicious and sweet, indeed. Yum, Yum, yum..