So go now. Squeeze the ones with the slightly pebbled skin. Find the one that gives just a little. Take it home. Make it your lunch.

What do you do with this gift?

It is the silent partner to a fried egg, the cool relief on a taco truck’s spicy al pastor, the reason a simple piece of toast can cost fourteen dollars in Brooklyn. But when it’s truly in season, the avocado asks for nothing more than a spoon and a pinch of salt. Eaten straight from the shell, standing over the kitchen sink, juice running down your wrist—that is the ritual.

True avocado season is not a single date. It is a migratory bird. For California, it’s a long, lazy love affair from late winter through early fall, peaking in the sun-drunk months of spring and summer. For Florida, it’s a different beast—larger, leaner, and glossier, arriving just as the humidity breaks. But for the purist? The Hass avocado has a moment from April to July that is simply untouchable.