On Wednesday morning, Jamie Adams was up tree, picking avocados at his Bobs Farm property.
On Thursday he and his family - wife Yvonne and probably their kids Max and Miley - were packing the 800kg of Haas avocados they picked during the week. After six days of ripening, they will be sold, many by pre-order, to customers at the Adams' own roadside "Green Door" stall, open every Saturday during the season, at their Bobs Farm property, and on Sunday at their stall at the Newcastle City Farmers Market.
Many of Adams' avocados will be bought by local restaurateurs and cafe owners.
At the popular Estabar cafe on The Esplanade in Newcastle's East End, the Adams avocados are served as "avo on toast" with marinated feta, fresh local lemons, topped with house-made dukkah and fresh greens on Baked Uprising sourdough.
The avocados are split into two halves in the dish.
"They are so perfect we never have to smash them," Estabar owner Henry Hawcroft said. "We just proudly cut them in half for our customers to enjoy. So you get the full avocado on your plate, and it looks great, and we trust our process. We'll die on that hill."
Estabar, which has long been committed to serving local produce on its menu, only has avocados on the menu when they can get supply from the Adams. The new crop began coming in three weeks ago.
"We know when we start to see the whales out front [their windows face Newcastle beach], the avocado season is almost here, so we love this time of year," Hawcroft said.
The Adams family have been farming avocados for about 10 years at Bobs Farm, growing Haas and Sharwill varieties on their 700-plus trees set on 25 acres. In a good year, the crop will be more than 50 tonnes.
Jamie Adams said he expected they would harvest about 30 tonnes this year.
He will pick regularly to maintain fresh supplies, and expects the season to last until November, finishing before Christmas.
He knows he has a good product, and he's happy to deliver it direct to consumers.
"You've got to cut out the middle man," he said. "I think there's about 10 middlemen, and sometimes they make more money than you do.
"It works for everyone. They are getting the best freshest possible fruit they can, and we can keep prices a bit lower because we don't have all the middlemen to pay for."
Adams, who also runs his own mechanic business, has built the avocado business by commitment to quality, and the ability to sell every piece he grows.
"We have a real good customer base," he said. "Some have been with us for 10 years. Once they try our avocados, they're hooked for life.
"When we first started at the [Newcastle] market, we were doing 70kg a market, and now we hit up to 500kg in a market."
Adams' avocados are sold in every size and shape: by the piece, by the bag, by the tray, or by the crate. His biggest seller is small avocados.
"You get the little ladies, or people who just want a little one on a sandwich," he said. "They use all of it, nothing goes to waste. Happy days."
.Adams' reputation for quality is part because his avocados are so fresh.
"I ripen in my way and turn it around in about six days, which means my piece of fruit will last in the fridge for three weeks," he said.
"But, when you an avocado from Coles or Woolworths, that's about a month-old by the time you get it. And that's why, if you look at them in the wrong way, they turn bad.
"I can say picked today, ready to eat in a week."
