Locally Grow Locally Enjoyed Cal Poly Avocados BY JORDAN DUNN
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t’s a well-known fact avocados are a healthy and increasingly popular fruit. But not everyone knows Cal Poly students play an important role in getting the fruit from the field to local markets. Students involved in Cal Poly’s Fruit Tree Enterprise are responsible for getting fresh fruit straight from the orchard and into consumer hands. The students grow, harvest, process and sell the fruit themselves, Dr. Lauren Garner,
Horticulture and Crop Science Department Professor, said. “The students dealing with fruit trees are split into two different crews: the production crew and the picking and marketing crew,” Garner said. “There are currently 30 students in the Fruit Tree Enterprise project, 11 student employees on the production crew and seven student employees on the picking and marketing crew.” The production PAGE 45