In elementary school, did you ever start an avocado plant from the pit? I did. I remember waiting for weeks, as the stone steeped in tepid water, for the roots to burgeon, and a spindly plant to sprout. But I don’t really remember much past that point. I don’t remember planting the pit in soil, or watering it, or most of all, an avocado tree actually growing. Maybe that’s because this takes 15-20 years. Yep, you read that right. 20 long years!

As daunting as that figure seems, and as unfortunately black as my thumb is, I have not been deterred from forcing my very own pits. I have always felt rather moderately about avocados. I could take them or leave them. But did you know that California grows 90% of all the avocados that we eat in this country. That is a lot of fruit! It forced this once-California girl to take notice.

Perhaps it is a bout of homesickness, or the fact that as I write this post, the Connecticut snow falls softly onto the chain-link fence outside my window, but it makes me long for a bit of California, right here in New Haven. So, I bought a few avocados, even though they’re hardly a local fruit, gobbled them up, stuck the pits with toothpicks, and plunged them into some water.

Now comes the waiting game. It could take weeks for the pits to root and even longer for a plant to sprout. I will be patient, but I also won’t hold my breath. But if all goes well, just think of what a delicious salad awaits me when I am 51.