Avocado

[Ianab]

Avocado related injuries have cost the NZ Accident Insurance system $3.3 million over the last 5 years. Mostly due to people slipping with their knife while cutting them open. 

Be careful out there people  ;)

Avocado injuries cost taxpayers .3m in five years | Stuff.co.nz

[B.C.C. Lapp]

You got to wonder who it was exactly that looked around and said, "You know we got to start tracking the statistics of avocado injuries. Avocados are out of hand. We must stop the avocado carnage laying waste to the people."   

Then you got to ask yourself who it was that agreed to and payed for the studies to find out exactly how much human suffering avocados are causing. 

Sarcasm not directed at you personally Ianab, but this just struck me funny.    :D

[Don P]

We must be eating better. About 40 years ago I remember a study came out saying slicing bagels was the danger.

[Southside]

You see that's the problem, the Avocado isn't out of hand, it's in hand.  If it were out of hand then the injuries would not be out of hand, nor would they be in hand.  It's sort of a time travel paradox / if you choose not to decide you have still made a choice thing.   :D

[sprucebunny]

Maybe there should be a warning label or instructions pasted to avocados.


I can't really understand avocados being any more dangerous than potatoes but I do have experience with a knife.

[Ianab]

You got to wonder who it was exactly that looked around and said, "You know we got to start tracking the statistics of avocado injuries. Avocados are out of hand. We must stop the avocado carnage laying waste to the people."   

Then you got to ask yourself who it was that agreed to and payed for the studies to find out exactly how much human suffering avocados are causing. 

Sarcasm not directed at you personally Ianab, but this just struck me funny.    :D

The research is really only a computer search of the injury claims. Like a search of the forum for the word "avocado". That simply spits out all the injury cases that involved an avocado. Then total the value of each claim.

ACC is the Govt accident insurance organisation here. ANY accident goes through their system and they pay for the medical treatment, lost wages etc. So the have all this info on their computer system, and are able to pull out reports on almost anything.


From the more practical side it gives the ability to work out what specific jobs or items are creating the most injuries. Like they know  exactly how many people hurt themselves with chainsaws, or motorbikes, or .... Then some of the budget gets spent on education to try and reduce those claims. To justify spending the $, you need some actual facts.

[Ianab]

I can't really understand avocados being any more dangerous than potatoes but I do have experience with a knife.

Maybe it's a combination of having a stone in the middle, and the oily nature of avocado? And of course poor knife technique.

[Southside]

Well the potato took Ireland and it seems the Avocado is trying to take out New Zealand, so there is that.   :D

[Ianab]

Living on the edge.  8)



 

Happy to report I now have a bowl of guacamole, a bag of Doritos, and all my fingers.   

[Cedarman]

Just a thought.  I wonder if kids were still allowed to carry pocket knives there would be more whittling. Kids would learn not to cut themselves by cutting themselves.  As they got older they would be more proficient in slicing and dicing.  As adults peeling and slicing an avocado would be injury free.
But the statistics would now show a lot of kids injuries with knives.
Always trade offs.
Happy cutting.
Love guacamole.

[Old saw fixer]

My daughter loves guacamole, but her 4 yr. son calls it slime.  I eat it when served on Mexican food but really don't taste it.

[Ianab]

I eat it when served on Mexican food but really don't taste it

Maybe need to tweak the chilli in it slightly. There should be a balance between the cool / bland avocado and a little chilli heat.

[Old saw fixer]

A bit of chili makes almost everything taste better!

[SwampDonkey]

They have become over priced here. I only like the Mexican ones, not those big oversized ones. Have not bought any for 4 or 5 years. They don't move very fast in the stores because of price. Anyone buying them would have to look them over well, ones in bags are usually half rotten.

At one time WCB was about to run anyone out of the woods with a saw, this went on for 10-15 years. All kinds of mandatory safety courses and other stuff. It's slowed down now a lot to almost non existence. There are also a lot less thinners to and they can't get all the thinning done. The demographics has changed a lot, not many young fella's around and a lot of couples aren't even having kids. Out of 30 houses on this 3 mile road, maybe 5 house holds have young'ns, preschool and in school.

[sprucebunny]

I love avocados and would eat one a day except that the Hass ones are only about half the size they were 5 years ago but cost the same.

It's probably because they can get more in a box ( less air) but , as said, they are too expensive.

The big Florida ones are a little sweeter. I like them ok but not as much as Hass type.

[Ianab]

I got a bag of six (small) ones this week for ~$4.00. The bigger ones are like ~$1.60 each. I think it comes down to how the trees a managed. More space for the trees and different pruning can create larger fruit, but usually less. Anyway the big ones end up on the "premium" market, and the smaller ones are sold by the kg to the supermarkets.

I don't buy them out of season, they are too pricey, but right now they are pretty cheap.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I remember Avocados were called Pears in Cameroon when I was working there. They were pretty common but I don't know what they used them for as I never saw them on the menus. They had limes and lemons and onion and garlic and everything they needed to make good Guacamole but corn chips were impossible to find. Once in a great while you'd see them come into the one westernized food market we had in Douala and when they did you'd see one lady pushing 2-3 buggies full of them and would buy out the entire stock as soon as they hit the shelf (before some greedy so and so got to them). I assume she passed them along or traded them with her friends.

   I can eat it but I'd greatly prefer Hummus or Fuul with good thick Arabic bread.

[Don P]

We wait for the snowbirds and trade zucchini for them, everyone gets the good end of the deal  :D.

[farmfromkansas]

My wife is a great shopper, she buys several when they are on sale.  Haven't had a problem cutting myself, as I used a knife a lot.  She does cut herself occasionally.  The rotten ones my wife thinks froze in shipping, as winter is the only time she has that problem.

[doc henderson]

we buy the whole ones, but my wife has been getting plastic bags of pureed stuff and it stays nice as you cut a corner and squeeze only what you need the rest stays green and not brown.

[Mooseherder]

If you keep them in the refrigerator it takes a long time for them to ripen.  We take them out for a day and put them back into the refrigerator until your ready to use them. They tend to last much longer that way.  I used one tonight and it was soft without the spots.   A great guacamole recipe is 2 avocado's cored and sliced. 1/4 cup diced onion, 1 teaspoon minced garlic and lightly salted with garlic salt.  Mash it down with a potato masher or fork.  I sometimes add a little diced tomato also.  Good stuff.

Once they're cut in half lengthwise to the pit. Twist the halves and seperate. Now you have 2 shallow halves, use the tablespoon to ease out the pit and the same spoon to scoop the flesh from the skin.  Easy peasy.

[mike_belben]

I eat a lot of avocados with salt.  My only regret is the avocado business supports a lot of mexican cartels.

[newoodguy78]

Mike Look for Florida avocados, they're usually bigger too.