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Life on a Family Avocado Grove

by Kirk Holmes Stories

We are the Holmes family: Kirk, Becca and our two young boys, running a family avocado farm in Escondido. The land has been in Kirk’s family since 1925, and when the grove passed to us in November 2024, after Kirk’s mom passed away, we left Las Vegas, moved into the house Kirk grew up in, and started learning how to farm it. This guide collects the posts about that side of things: who we are, how the two properties work, how your box gets picked and packed, Becca’s kitchen garden, the projects that go sideways and the days that look nothing like the videos.

Who we are and why we came home

Kirk’s parents bought the house property in 1986, and a few of the trees he climbed as a boy are still standing (meet the Holmes family). We are both military kids: Kirk’s parents both served in the Navy, and Becca’s dad was in the Army (military kids turned avocado farmers). That is where the USA in our name comes from, not the joke Kirk tells first (what the USA stands for), and why a Fourth of July thank-you found its way onto an avocado site (America at 250).

People ask why we grow a thirsty crop in dry California, and why not in Mexico. The honest answer is that we did not choose to plant these trees; Kirk’s parents did, in the 1970s, and we chose to keep them going (why grow avocados in dry California?, why here and not Mexico?). Thirsty is fair: Avocado Production in California, the growers’ handbook published by UC Cooperative Extension and the California Avocado Society figures that a mature acre needs at least 4,500 gallons a day in summer in most inland Southern California areas, where rain averages only 11 to 15 inches a year. The handbook’s second volume puts a mature tree at 20 by 20 feet in Escondido at about 57 gallons a day in July, roughly 6,200 gallons an acre, and about 4.6 acre-feet an acre over a year if no rain fell; counting rain, most San Diego County groves need about 3 to 3.5 acre-feet an acre a year. And avocados drink all year: in a dry winter, growers never stop irrigating. A big part of the reason is our boys, who get to grow up outside among the trees (raising our boys in the grove, the climbing tree). Becca’s reasons are about food, health and knowing where it comes from (why Becca said yes to the farm, three things that inspire her). The longer version is why we will not quit growing avocados.

Two properties, two jobs

We farm two properties, and each has a different job (which of our avocados ship to you). About 30 trees on a little under an acre at the house supply every online order, picked by us for each box. The 10-acre commercial grove, about 20 minutes away, was planted by Kirk’s parents in the mid-1970s as a side project alongside their Navy careers; its fruit is picked in bulk and sold to our packer, Mission, and a grove manager helps us run it (a walk through the grove we took on, what grove life really looks like). The lower five acres are hardly planted at all, and that is where the biggest replanting will happen: the plan is to start by replacing trees at the same density and, once the new trees are in, to plant closer, with up to 500 new trees at the grove over time and 30 to 40 more at the house (our replanting plans, grove revitalization, replanting four acres). A new well is part of the revitalization, and the handbook’s caution for grove wells is salt: wells in areas with little groundwater storage are often saline, and well water with an EC above 1.2 is usually not suitable for avocados. Closer planting is a well-worn idea: the traditional grove spacing was 20 by 20 feet, about 109 trees an acre, and growers have since tried much denser plantings of upright varieties, which the handbook says are easier to keep small than a spreading Hass. The lower acres are also where cold air settles, which is why the original plans put the cold-hardy Bacon down there (why Bacon went downhill).

At the house we do a property walk several times a week, checking the fruit, the blossoms, the new growth and trees we thought were dead coming back. Keeping old trees alive is also our carbon plan, and some of the most loved ones are the least tidy, like the wind-toppled Fuerte that is now the boys’ jungle gym. How we look after the trees is in how to grow avocado trees, and the grove’s paper trail is in the history of California avocados.

From the tree to your door

We marked what felt like our first official season with a short clip about cutting out the middleman and selling straight to the people who eat the fruit (our first official Hass season). Early boxes were packed on the dining room table and at a garage workstation, where we learned not to buy packing tape at the dollar store. The routine has settled into picking the biggest fruit, weighing every box a little over, cushioning it in excelsior (fine wood shavings you can compost) and tucking in a note with the pick date (how we pack a box). Small fruit stays on the tree to keep growing (picking a customer’s order by hand), and Sunday is usually picking day, with boxes shipping once a week (a week at Holmes Grown).

After four months of Sunday picking, customers had ordered more than $2,000 of avocados in our first direct season (thank you for our first season). Smaller streams help too: Facebook monetization, a table at Burn Boot Camp, a playoff special for the Vegas Golden Knights (long since ended), and the avocado Hawaiian shirt Kirk designed once people started calling him the avocado guy, now in the shop as the Avocado Hawaiian Shirt.

Growing up on the grove

The boys are part of almost everything here: an Easter egg hunt among the trees, climbing the same tree Kirk climbed, and helping (in their way) with every build. Safety slows all of it down, and a golf cart close call that left Becca with a sprained elbow reinforced the rules we keep: hearing protection around loud tools, about ten feet from anything that is cutting, no pruners in small hands, and real, age-appropriate jobs like shovels, weeding and watering.

Becca’s kitchen garden

Around the house we grow a lot more than avocados (what’s growing in August, the citrus alongside them, growing fruit trees on an avocado farm). Becca’s guacamole garden grows the supporting cast: jalapeño, bell and poblano peppers, tomatoes, garlic and onion, and later a first tomatillo (garden now, guacamole later, a garlic border at three weeks). It has taught her plenty. Tomatoes planted tight turned into a jungle, so she split three plants into six and tried the Florida weave; one season she turned three starts into eleven plants by rooting suckers in a jar of water. Red onions are ready when the tops flop and the shoulders show (when to harvest red onions). Wildlife takes its share: a gopher hole and weeds in one garden update, ground squirrels taking the tomatoes in another, and a vegetable patch moved uphill away from the squirrels.

The garden keeps growing: a first-season tour, sixteen 4×4 raised beds, a volunteer artichoke that moved in under an avocado tree, and cart after cart of mulch hauled behind the golf cart. We wrote about what all that abundance teaches in food scarcity vs natural abundance.

Projects that go sideways

We needed a shed so the garage could become packing space (out of the garage). The kit listed as 7×7 turned out to be closer to 6×8 after we had built a 7×7 floor (build the base after the box arrives), so the floor came apart and a door got flipped (tear it out and start over), with small helpers on site throughout (little helpers included). With the roof on and the tools in, our verdict was that next time Kirk would rather build one from wood (would we buy a shed kit again?).

Farmers, homesteaders and grove to grub

Becca calls herself a crunchy mom, and she has described this life both as starting a homestead that continues a family legacy (a family legacy, not a trend) and as farming rather than homesteading, since farming means growing food in quantity for other people’s plates (farmers, not homesteaders). Either way, direct to consumer was our first pillar (Becca’s close-to-the-source rule), and whole-food cooking is the kitchen end of it (grove to grub). Her recipes live in choosing, ripening and using avocados.

The honest side

Social media is edited, ours included, so we try to show the rest (deinfluencing our avocado farm). Kirk’s hardest parts are talking to a camera, learning to grow trees rather than just climb them, and doing it all with two little ones (the three hardest parts). Becca’s are the move, the irrigation math and farming with no family help nearby (Becca’s honest list). The irrigation math is real: the handbook’s method starts from the reference evapotranspiration reported by the state’s CIMIS weather stations for the past week, multiplies it by a crop factor for avocados, adds about 10 percent to leach salt, and allows for how evenly the sprinklers put the water down. Kirk drove up Interstate 5 to UC Davis for the Hass Avocado Board’s BOLD class to learn more about the industry (driving the 5 to UC Davis). And there are the bloopers: an avocado dropped on Becca’s head, the view from inside a tree at harvest, and giant fruit saved for Father’s Day. For the prettier moments, see sunset harvests and family farming; for the money side, the economics of our avocado farm.

If you would like fruit from the trees in these stories, our 4lb and 6lb Hass boxes are picked the week they ship and ship free; between harvests, join the waitlist on either page and we will email you when fruit is back.

Every post in this guide

Here is everything we have published on this subject so far, grouped by topic. We add new posts as we film them.

Our family and why we farm

  • Meet the Holmes Family: From Sin City Back to the Trees Kirk Climbed as a Boy
  • Military Kids Turned Avocado Farmers: Why We Took On the Family Grove
  • What the USA in Holmes Grown USA Really Stands For
  • America at 250: A Fourth of July Thank-You From Our Avocado Grove
  • Why Grow Avocados in Dry California? For Us, It Started With Family
  • Why Grow Avocados Here and Not in Mexico? A Viewer Question Answered
  • Why We Farm: Raising Our Boys in the Avocado Grove
  • The Climbing Tree: A Family Reason We Keep Growing Avocados
  • Why Becca Said Yes to the Farm: Food, Health and Knowing Where It Comes From
  • From Las Vegas to the Avocado Grove: Three Things That Inspire Becca
  • Starting a Homestead Among the Avocados: A Family Legacy, Not a Trend
  • Farmers, Not Homesteaders: Why We Draw the Line on Our Avocado Grove
  • Why Direct to Consumer Became Our First Pillar: Becca’s Close-to-the-Source Rule
  • Grove to Grub: Why Becca Is Bringing Whole-Food Cooking to Our Farm Channel
  • Why We Will Not Quit Growing Avocados

The grove and the house trees

Orders, packing and the business

  • Our First Official Hass Season, and Why We Skipped the Middleman
  • Orders Open: Packing Our First Boxes of the Season at the Dining Room Table
  • From the Tree to UPS in About Two Hours: Our First Pick-and-Ship Mornings
  • How We Pack an Avocado Box: Picking Big, Weighing Heavy and Wood Excelsior
  • Picking a Customer’s Order by Hand: Why the Small Ones Stay on the Tree
  • A Week at Holmes Grown: Sunday Picking, Monday Shipping, and Becca’s Recipes
  • Four Months of Sunday Picking: Thank You for Our First Farm-Direct Season
  • A Penny Here, a Penny There: What Facebook Monetization Means for Our Farm
  • Holmes Grown at Burn Boot Camp: Our Avocado Table at the Gym
  • Go Knights Go: The Las Vegas Hockey Team We Brought to the Avocado Farm
  • From Captain Kirk to the Avocado Guy: Why We Made an Avocado Hawaiian Shirt

Honest days and bloopers

  • Deinfluencing Our Avocado Farm: What Grove Life Really Looks Like
  • The Three Hardest Parts of Running Our Avocado Farm Right Now
  • Becca’s Honest List: The Move, the Irrigation Math and Farming Without Help
  • A Golf Cart, a Two-Year-Old and a Sprained Elbow: Farm Safety With Toddlers
  • An Easter Egg Hunt in the Avocado Grove
  • Bonked by an Avocado: A Harvest Blooper From Under the Canopy
  • The View From Inside an Avocado Tree at Harvest Time
  • Saving the Biggest Avocados on the Tree for Father’s Day

Kitchen garden and homestead

  • Planting a Guacamole Garden: What Becca Put in the Beds
  • Garden Now, Guacamole Later: Planting Beds While the Hass Are Ready
  • A Garlic Border and a First Tomatillo: Our Guacamole Garden at Three Weeks
  • Square Foot Gardening Met Tomatoes: Why We Split Three Crowded Plants Into Six
  • Trying the Florida Weave on Bushy Tomatoes in Our Guacamole Garden
  • Eleven Tomato Plants From Three Starts: Rooting Suckers in a Jar of Water
  • When Are Red Onions Ready to Harvest? Lessons From Our Guacamole Garden
  • Guacamole Garden Update: Gophers, Weeds and Our First Jalapenos
  • Squirrels Took the Tomatoes, the Tomatillos Won: A Guacamole Garden Check-In
  • Last Fuertes Off the Tree, and a Garden Moved Uphill Away From the Squirrels
  • Becca’s First-Season Kitchen Garden: Growing What Goes With Our Avocados
  • Sixteen Raised Beds: Building Becca’s Outdoor Kitchen Garden
  • What’s Growing at Our House in August: Avocados, Citrus, Fruit Trees and Garden Beds
  • Not Just Avocados: The Citrus That Grows Alongside Them
  • A Volunteer Artichoke That Moved In Under Our Avocado Tree
  • Hauling Mulch at the End of Hass Season (and the Missing Trailer Hitch)
  • Growing Fruit Trees on an Avocado Farm: Homestead Food Freedom and Family Recipes
  • Food Scarcity vs. Natural Abundance: What Commercial Avocado Farming Taught Us

The shed build

  • Out of the Garage: Why a Shed Came Before More Avocado Orders
  • Building a Tool Shed for the Avocado Grove, Little Helpers Included
  • The 7×7 Shed That Was Really 6×8: Build the Base After the Box Arrives
  • Tear It Out and Start Over: Rebuilding Our Shed Floor (and Flipping the Door)
  • Roof On, Tools In: Would We Buy a Shed Kit Again?

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