Here in east coast Oz, I am happy to report that somehow the weather gods have worked together and we finally - after 25 years - had a good sized crop of avocados on the tree I grew from seed.

We've had some years with no avocados and some with a few, but this time there have been at least 25. Unfortunately most of them are too high to pick because the tree is taller than our two storey house, but I have picked some from the top verandah with an extendable picking tool. We just have to keep checking the ground for the ripe ones when they fall off the tree.

I know that the avocado tree is either a Shepard or a Hass variety because they are my two favourite varieties. What’s the difference? It is probably a Shepard because the skin is green. It might not be the best tree for our area but they have a good flavour, colour and texture so that's why I did the avocado seed sprouting trick. It took a few months at least for the seed to sprout and a few years in a pot to be big enough to plant in the ground.