Guacamole is just one way to relish avocado

Elia Powers

What can you do with an avocado?

That was the challenge posed to Erin Koenig, the Orange County

Fair’s Kids Park coordinator, charged with creating activities that

incorporate this year’s commodity.

“Avocados were a difficult one,” Koenig admitted. “People don’t

always like to eat them plain, so we couldn’t have eating contests. I

thought, they are fairly round, you can throw them, you can catch

them. I had to use my imagination.”

Koenig’s first step was buying avocados in bulk at Trader Joe’s

market. But by the end of the second day of competition, the avacados

were all ruined, and the grocery bill was getting out of hand.

So, she had another idea -- use toy avacados. Among her contests

were bowling with plastic avocados and dropping fake avocado pits

into a bucket of slime for children to retrieve.

On Wednesday, some of her other concepts came to fruition.

Children played hot potato with a toy avocado under a tent in Kids

Park. Across the fairgrounds, campers from Grace Lutheran Church’s

summer camp in Huntington Beach hopped across a stage with avocados

stuck between their knees.

“I love it,” said camp director Lisa Burns, as she watched many of

her 83 campers racing toward orange cones. “We have kids here from

Korea who have only been in the county for a week. This is Americana

for them.”

Then Burns got on stage herself for the adult races. She placed

the toy avocado between her legs, spun around three times and

staggered backward toward the finish line.

“Go Ms. Lisa; you’re No. 1, Ms. Lisa,” yelled 7-year-old Jessica

Blair from her seat under the Heritage Stage tent.

Wearing black-and-white referee gear, master of ceremonies Lauren

Francis, 15, narrated the racers’ every move.

“I like the adult category best, because I can make them do what I

want,” Francis said. “Kids enjoy seeing their parents act silly.”

The campers said they enjoyed seeing their director stumbling on

stage.

Everyone who participated in the Guac Walk contest won ribbons.

Burns finished third and received a “Charlie and the Chocolate

Factory” T-shirt.

For the year of the avocado, the green-colored fruit appears in

various incarnations across the fairgrounds.

Vendors sell fried guacamole. Artist Steve Glib, of Orange, paid

homage by entering into a contest a framed photograph of a woman

using two hollow avocados as goggles.

Judy Teunissen, owner of JG Woodworking stand, brought to her

booth a small avocado tree.

A Riverside resident, Teunissen said she has three such trees in

her backyard. She is quick to fire off avocado facts: Did you know

the fruit doesn’t become ripe until you pluck it from the tree? And

avocado trees can grow up to 40 feet.

“I try to keep up with the theme every year,” she said. “I’ve

liked avocados all my life.”

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

elia.powers@latimes.com.