Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 495
Avocados
Hello Everyone
We all know that avocados are good for us.
They are very calorific (high in calories) but are full of good fats to help our bodies function well. They should be eaten in moderation; that means not every day.
The list of nutrients they contain just goes on and on. They contain iron, potassium and Vitamins E, C and K as well as some B vitamins. They have more protein and oil content than any other fruit.
Avocados are actually classed as a large berry containing one seed.
They are very valuable in a vegetarian diet.
ln some places, avocados are called butter pears because when their flesh is really ripe it is very soft like butter or alligator pears because of their knobbly skin, and sometimes an avocado pear because they are often shaped like a pear; although some are more egg-shaped or ball-shaped.
Their skin is usually dark green, but can be black too.
The flesh can be spread in sandwiches and on toast and if you don’t particularly like the taste, you can add egg, tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, mayonnaise, pepper or any other salad items that you like.
You can add avocados in chunks to salad.
You can turn them into guacamole to make a tasty dip for carrot sticks and celery sticks.
You can get avocado oil too to put in your salad dressings or salsa dips.
You can add avocados to green smoothies.
lt is easier to take the flesh from the skin rather than the skin off the fruit.
After an avocado has been halved, some chefs whack the stone inside the fruit with a flourish with a big knife to grab onto it and pull it out. Hospitals sometimes have to tend to the injuries that result from the knife missing the stone and hitting the chef’s hand instead!
You can simply flip the stone out with a spoon, which is much safer.
The flesh can be cubed with a knife (that doesn’t have to be very sharp if you are not allowed to use kitchen knives) and scraped out with a spoon. lf the flesh is really soft it can be just spooned out.
Put the avocado on a stable surface before you start cutting it.
You can put the avocado onto a folded tea towel and cover your hand with the tea towel too so that you can get a good grip of the avocado and pad your hand in case the knife slips.
lf you keep the stone from a fresh avocado and manage to grow it you can have an attractive houseplant for free.
You can rest the stone on top of a jar filled with water (round end downwards) or simply rest the bottom of the stone on a pot of compost and eventually the stone will split and the plant will root and then shoot.
lf nothing has happened after a couple of months you need to try again with another stone.
lf you live in a flat with no garden, you can have your own tree growing inside. lt will not be able to struggle outside through a frosty, British winter.
Avocados probably originate from Mexico which is a lot warmer than here; and nowadays, Mexico provides about a third of the world’s supply; but there are big crops in California, Florida and Peru as well. Some varieties in Florida can even withstand quite low temperatures.
Avocados have been eaten in South America for thousands of years. They have been popular here since the 1960s.
You may be surprised to know that there are many hundreds of varieties.
Avocados are grown in warm climates and are picked before they are ripe. They ripen in a week or two on their way to the shops and then in your home after you have bought them. This is the same with bananas.
lf the fruits are ripe when you buy them in the shops, they may have been put into a special ripening room filled with a gas called synthetic ethylene gas. You can hasten ripening naturally by putting your avocados with bananas or apples.
You know when a fruit is ripe because it feels soft when you press it in your hand. Don’t put it in the fridge until it is ripe. lf you want to store part of an opened fruit you can put lemon juice on it to help stop it going brown.
After the fruit is harvested, the trees don’t need much attention during the rest of the year unless extra irrigation is needed – because they do drink quite a lot in the growing season.
The trees like quite high humidity, so no high winds that will dry them out, and they like very rich, free-draining soil; more acidic than alkaline; something to remember when you put your plant into a pot. As they grow, you will eventually need a very big pot!
Don’t leave your plant in full sun all day when it is very young.
lf the leaves begin to droop, you will know your plant needs watering. Don’t water it so much that the compost turns to mud. Do not use tap water, they will not like it. Use rain water, or if you cannot collect that, use tap water that has been standing for five days or more. You could use bottled water.
Your tree will like lots of sunlight when it is mature and feeding with a balanced liquid feed very 2-3 weeks through the summer. Don’t feed it for at least a year when it starts growing.
You can pinch the tip out if you like, to encourage more bushy growth.
(Don’t grow an avocado in the house if you have pets that have a habit of chewing your house plants though, because the leaves will be poisonous to them.)
Your tree will have to get quite big before it starts bearing fruit, if at all.
You will have to wait between four to ten years or even more to know. But in the meantime it will be an attractive plant to have.
You have to be very patient to be a good gardener.
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: What did the Mexican say to his depressed friend?
Bob: l don’t know. What did the Mexican say to his depressed friend?
Bill: When life gives you avocados, make guacamole!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
X Do not submerge the whole stone beneath the compost
Sit it on the top so that just the roots are buried
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, we have a quiz with a difference.
Here is a list of treatments that can be effective for inflammation and pain – therefore, quite a lot of illnesses.
You can try these instead of taking painkilling drugs.
Can you fill in the missing letters and work out the puzzle?
- m _ _ _ _ _ e
- h _ _ t p _ _ k
- y _ _ a s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ s
- r _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ y
- I _ _ _ a r _ d l _ _ p
- l _ _ _ _ _ _ r
- e _ _ _ _ _ _ g
*********************
TO ADVERTISE ON THIS BLOG
PLEASE CONTACT:
christina.sinclair.ads@aol.co.uk
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Recipe Spot
How to make an easy avocado dip…
lf you don’t like the taste of avocados or the taste of guacamole is too strong for you, but you would like to eat the goodness of avocados, here is an idea for you.
Take very soft avocado flesh from a fresh avocado or some defrosted pieces of avocado from a packet from the supermarket which will be soft and stir it into a tub of flavoured hummus.
This dip is lovely with carrots sticks or sugar snap peas.
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A HANDBAG PENClL CASE
This pencil case looks like a pencil.
It isn’t very big, but it has enough room for a few pens and pencils.
The point of the pencil is made in garter stitch to make it more robust.
CASE (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and black dk yarn cast on 2 stitches
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch (slip 1, knit 1)
Change to white dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of each of the next 8 rows of garter stitch
Change to pink dk yarn
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 50 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Change to white yarn
Knit 6 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Using over-sew stitching and with wrong sides together sew up the side seams using appropriate colours as you go
- Crochet 30 chains into a length of white yarn to thread through the channel at the top of the pencil to act as a draw-string
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
- massage
- heat pack
- yoga stretches
- reflexology
- infra red lamp
- laughter
- earthing – is standing or walking barefoot on the ground – it has an effect on the electrical balance in your body. It is especially important for people who spend a lot of time with electrical devices.
Earthing helps with many illnesses. It helps inflammation, your immune system and your sense of well-being.
This is something to try in a place where you know the ground is clean and free from anything that could damage your feet.
This is the season to try it out – when the ground is warm and dry.
You can do it on grass or on sand; not concrete or tarmac.
You can sit in a chair or on a bench and put your feet on the ground for as long as you can.
