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He went from standard citrus, apricot and avocado to a more exotic collection, adding finger limes, valentine pummelos, jaboticaba, cherimoya and pawpaw.

In 2003, Acevedo poured most of his retirement money into buying the avocado orchard where he also grows a smattering of other fruit such as mandarins, cherimoya and pomegranates.

The farm also grows ice cream beans, persimmons, pomegranates, passion fruit, dragon fruit, cherimoyas and caviar limes in soil that has become more fertile from the biodiversity of crops.

“He grew passion fruit and pineapple guava and cherimoya, and he was always looking for seeds people brought in from Mexico, especially chiles,” Ramirez said of his father.

Native to the Andes Mountain range, the cherimoya is a green, scaly fruit with flavor notes similar to banana, pineapple, mango, peach and strawberry.