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| Apricot Blossoms, © B. Radisavljevic |
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| Apricot Blossoms © B. Radisavljevic |
When the tree produces blossoms, the bees come to do their pollination job. Gradually the petals fall away and we see small fruits forming. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the garden at the right time to photograph these stages of the apricots' development. By late April the fruits sometimes get to this stage. This photo was taken on May 1.
Depending upon the weather each year, the apricots ripen by June or July and turn the beautiful orange color that lets us know they are ready to pick and eat. Nothing tastes better than a perfectly ripe apricot straight from the tree. But a dried apricot almost equals it. If you want to see some of my ripe apricots on the tree, click the related post, "Apricots Blossoms Make My Heart Happy" below.
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| Apricots and Lemon Cucumbers at Farmers Market, Templeton, in June, © B. Radisavljevic |
Buying fresh apricots anywhere but at a farmers market is tricky. Sometimes you can find ripe ones, but most supermarket apricots are picked before they reach peak ripeness. Even if you let them sit on the counter for a while, they may not ever get really ripe. I'm sure that some people may not have ever tasted a fully ripe apricot. I was spoiled because my dad planted an apricot tree in garden of the house where I grew up, and I had always eaten my apricots straight from the tree.
If you are lucky enough to have one or more apricot trees on your property, you know that sometimes more ripen than you can eat without some sort of preservation. You can freeze them, can them, make jam or preserves, or dry them. If you want to can or make preserves, be sure you have the bible of canning -- The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Having one or more of the items below can also be a big help at harvest time.
I personally prefer drying to canning because there is less mess and dehydrators are much lighter and easy to work with than canners full of water. I got my own dehydrator on a freecycle list, but I would certainly prefer the Nesco Snackmaster you see below. It has a better air circulation system, an adjustable temperature control, and a handy recipe book included so you will know how to dehydrate whatever produce you have on hand. Best of all, the flavors of the food on different trays don't mix. I'm so old now that it doesn't make sense to invest in a new dehydrator, but if I were a few years younger or if I had lots of produce to deal with, I would definitely trade up.
I love apricot jam, and used to make it when I was younger had a more reliable apricot crop. I always used a water-bath canner similar to the one below, except the one below comes with everything you need to get started. I had to buy my supplies piece by piece. If you plan to can vegetables or meats, though, you need a pressure canner. I only canned fruit.
Granite Ware 0719-1 Enamel-on-Steel Canning Kit with Blancher, 12-Piece
Ball Dissolvable Labels - (Set Of 60) (by Jarden Home Brands)Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75AFreezing Fruits and Vegetables for Food Storage (Home Prepping for Women Book 3)
Ball Dissolvable Labels - (Set Of 60) (by Jarden Home Brands)Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator FD-75AFreezing Fruits and Vegetables for Food Storage (Home Prepping for Women Book 3)If you decide to can your apricots or make jam or preserves, why not customize some of these labels to make your full jars into attractive gifts?
Apricot Jam sticker
Round apricot preserve jam orange food label classic round stickerApricot preserves or jam labels. square stickerApricot preserve jam orange food label sticker
Round apricot preserve jam orange food label classic round stickerApricot preserves or jam labels. square stickerApricot preserve jam orange food label stickerNow dream about ripe apricots or plant an apricot tree during this bareroot planting season to make your dreams come true.
The apricot blossoms are so pretty and promising! I like apricots, too, and would love to have a dehydrator for making fruit snacks.
ReplyDeleteI wish our tree here produced more of them. The one my mom planted here is huge and has never even produced a blossom. She said it was an apricot tree. It looks like one. It just doesn't act like one.
DeleteLove anything apricot, thanks Barbara for some really good ideas....
ReplyDeleteIn Southern California we had enough apricots to use some of those ideas. Here we are lucky if we get enough to even eat.
DeleteI haven't had a ripe apricot that tasted like an apricot in years. Even our local farmers markets sell hard, green things that, when they "ripen" are mushy and nearly flavorless. I thought I'd get tree-ripened apricots from our CSA last year, but even they sent us hard, green things. When I asked why, their manager said, "Ripe fruit is very difficult to ship." I thought that was why we bought local, close to home. So we could get it ripe. Oy.
ReplyDeleteGoodness. You hit a nerve! I'd love to taste your tree-ripened apricots sometime--or any tree-ripened fruit.
I was wondering about that January apricot day, too. Perhaps it originated down under?
Gorgeous intro picture. I often wish you were on a platform that supported larger images, because you have such beautiful pictures.
I do relate. Our local farmers markets also often have hard unripe fruit that has the orange color but still need to ripen. The samples they provide obviously aren't ripe, even though the local farmer says they are, and he is local. It is correct that a truly ripe apricot doesn't pack well if it's soft and perfect for eating. That's why having one's own tree or a friend with one is the best solution. I just do without my apricots if I can't grow them, since I don't like the green ones. Even if you grow them, one half -- the half toward the sun -- ripens faster than the other.
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