Use these simple directions to start an avocado plant which can later be transferred to a container pot or garden. Kids learn to choose, ripen, cut, and eat this fruit.
How to choose avocados:
Avocados are the fresh newly popular healthy food. To get children interested in this potassium rich food let him plant his own. Choose several avocados of varying ripeness. Very light green is unripe. Almost brown and bumpy is ripest. Test an avocado by pressing lightly with your thumb at the larger end of the fruit. Never squeeze as this will bruise the meat.
When they are ripe:
Don't refrigerate an avocado until it is as ripe as you want it. Place the fruits in a paper sack on the kitchen counter or top of a refrigerator to ripen. When one has reached its ripe state, it will give slightly when you press the top gently with your thumb. It will be bumpy and a darkened color.
Cut and pit:
- With a sharp knife pierce the peel at the top.
- Cut down to the pit, down the side of the fruit, around and back to the top.
- Now gently twist the halves in opposing directions.
- Lift out the exposed pit with a spoon.
- Next, run your spoon between the peeling and the green meat and turn the pear shaped avocado out into a bowl.
Eat the Avocado!
The avocado can be sprinkled with a small amount of lemon or lime juice, salted if desired and eaten in slices. It is good mashed as a chip dip or sliced on salads or as a side for meat dishes.
Start your Plant:
- Rinse the pit and dry with a paper towel. Watch out! They are slick!
- Peel off the pit's brown husk.
- Use three toothpicks stabbed halfway into the pointed end of the pit .
- Suspend it in the opening of a heavy glass or fruit canning jar.
- Fill the jar with enough lukewarm water to cover the bottom end of the pit.
- Add more water as that evaporates.
- Soon the seed will sprout roots, a stem and leaves.
Transfer your plant:
- When the leaves appear then transplant your plant into a bucket or clay pot of potting soil, or if warm enough try setting it out in the garden.
To try some other window garden plants for the home or the classroom, read my articles with instructions for thee projects.
