A Fairly Odd (and Rare) Avocado

You’re probably familiar with Hass and Fuerte avocados, but have you ever seen a Don Gillogly?

Two Don Gillogly avocados (l) next to a Hass avocado (r)

My section of North County San Diego is, and has been, loaded with avocados for nearly 100 years. Not only does everyone around here have an avocado tree or two, but we have Avocado festivals, we name theaters after Avocados, even our section of the famed Interstate 15 is called “the Avocado Highway.”

Heck, we love avocados so much, the local artists paint them on the sides of buildings.

Avocado Mural by local artist Art Mortimer

And while many of the large avocado groves have given way to houses (water is expensive these days and Avocados need a lot of it), the area is still home to a lot of small farms and tree nurseries raising a wide variety of these bumpy green fruits.

While most of the varieties the local growers raise are well-known nationwide – Hass, Fuerte, Bacon, etc. – there are a few rare varieties you will see only see here. One of those is the Don Gillogly avocado.

My neighbor’s dad is a local avocado grower who has a Don Gillogly tree in a private grove behind his house. He told me he received it from a friend back in the 1980s, who, in turn, receive his from the actual Don Gillogly, who lived nearby.

While an offshoot of the Hass family, the Don Gillogly tree is much smaller — around 10 feet tall versus 20 feet tall for a Hass — and produces a smallish, club-shaped fruit rather than the “alligator pear” shape of the Hass and Fuertes.

Ripe Fuerte avocados

Ripe Hass avocados

What really sets the Don Gillogly apart though is, unlike the Hass which fruits only in the spring, this tree produces massive loads of avocados twice a year — in late winter/early spring, and again in mid-autumn.

The Don Gillogly has a very creamy flesh and, compared to the firmer Hass and Fuertes, is quite soft coming off the tree, so it doesn’t travel well. As a result, you won’t see it in stores, though occasionally you will find it in a local farmer’s market.

Fortunately, I live next door to a guy who gets bushels of these and happily shares them with us (you can only eat so many avocados – and this one tree produces a lot of avocados).

While a “type A” cultivar like its Hass cousin, the Don Gillogly doesn’t reproduce reliably from a seed. Instead, they tend to grow back as regular Hass. So, if you’re interested in growing one, I recommend buying one from a grower.

Personally, I don’t have room for another fruit tree, so I’m happy to get a basket full of fruit a couple times a year.