Sweet Sweat of Summer
July 10, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , trackback
“Mommy, you missed a branch up top!” yelled my daughter.
While others chose to hide at the mall and wait out the heat, my family decided to duck under the shade of our old apricot tree and harvest our ripe fruit. Perhaps an unexpected benefactor of the recent heat waves, our tree has produced more fruit this season than the last few years combined. Okay, maybe it had this much fruit last year but the greedy racoons beat us to the harvest. This year, with a little help from our vigilant dog, we have yet to see those sneaky thiefs.
With a little reaching, climbing and summer sweat, we amazingly had collected 2 whole buckets (and I don’t mean the small toy kind) of ripe golden fruit, just from one side of the tree! Embarassed but proud of our bounty, we filled several bags with apricots and knocked on our neighbors’ doors. Actually, it was just me as my husband is still a bit weary about being the “crazy neighbor” that drops by unexpectedly. Three doors and 45 minutes later, I think I solidified my position as the friendly neighbor 
But my neighborly gesture barely made a dent in the buckets, so in the cool of the night, my mom taught me how to make apricot pie. Four pies to be exact - 1 to eat and 3 to freeze. Who knew you can freeze uncooked pies!
Still with a bucket remaining, the next night I made 3 batches of apricot jam/preserve. Thanks GreenBean for teaching me how to make jam! Although I am suppose to wait 10 days for the jam to set, I couldn’t help opening one this morning to spread on my bread. It was delicious.
Now I am eagerly waiting for the remaining apricots to ripe and searching for new recipes. Anyone got suggestions?
CindyC at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Find More Green Products & Reviews..
Comments»
How fun! I would either can or freeze some enjoy this winter.
I would dry some of them. Dried apricots = yummy, easy, healthy snack, tasty addition to trail mix or granola.
Yeah, I could not have waited ten days either, especially not the girls they all jumped right in
Organic Foods
When we went to the apple orchard last year, they gave out a sheet with recipes. One suggestion was to make apple pie filling, line a pie plate with a plastic bag, and freeze the filling in it. You then have perfect pie-shaped frozen filling that you can just dump in a freshly made crust whenever you want it.
How cool! At my parents’ house this past weekend, we picked buckets from their Italian plum (aka prune) tree and made three batches of jam. Didn’t even make a dent in the tree’s fruit!
As to waiting 10 days, I always always enjoy my jam the next day. I’m so impatient that way.
Glad it turned out.