Sainsbury’s the UK based supermarket is about to introduce the stoneless avocado. “They are very nice,” said a spokeswoman, heedless of the needs of Spanish adventurers. “You can eat the whole thing, skin and all. “The supermarket chain says the new variety will silence those who moan about how much space the stone occupies and how long it takes to extract it.
“It’s a eureka moment in the world of avocados,” said a fruit buyer, Clancy McMahon. “The stone usually takes up around a quarter of the fruit and is always difficult to remove. This way you get more avocado for your money.” The new fruit is smaller than the stoned variety, but is said to have the same nutritional composition. “So soft is the fruit that with the top sliced off it can be eaten with a spoon, just like a boiled egg,” rhapsodized Ms McMahon.
Gourmets with a conscience about foodstuffs being flown around the world may be distressed to learn that the avocados hail from South Africa; grown in Nelspruit, 225 miles east of Johannesburg but the good news is that the region’s rich alluvial soils have been farmed for more than a century and Sainsbury says it is working in partnership with the area’s indigenous people.
The word avocado appears to derive from the Aztec ahuacuatl, meaning testicle tree. Aztec virgins were said to have been closeted indoors while the aphrodisiac plant was harvested. Asked whether the stoneless fruit had the same potency as the stoned, the Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “They have the same everything as the regular avocado. The only thing missing is the stone.”