farmers produce about 90% of the nati's total avocado crop, and that includes farmers like mark and linda bruce of simi valley in ventura county. not from a farming background, and surrounded by a huge housing development, the couple really didn't know what to do with all of the lush land they had when they bought the property back in 2000. >> because we had always talked about having a ranch. mark and i had talked about it. we did not know what that meant, but that was our--i guess it was a dream, but didn't have any idea how it was going to evolve. and then one day this is where we were. >> a friend of ours said, "it looks like good avocado property." and not knowing anything about avocados other than that's what i put on my tacos, uh, i >> so the couple learned as they went along, everything frcm soil science to irrigation techniques. and before they knew it, they had developed a thriving avocado orchard along the way. they now have 8,500 avocado trees--trees that have come to mean more to the couple than they ever could have imagined. >> we like to think that we have 8,500 employees working