Apricot Explosion

This summer has been pretty lame for fruit and vegetables so far. Some late May and early June rain really messed up the California produce crop, which I'm sure many of you non-Californians are noticing as well.

Peaches and nectarines are just starting to really make their way onto the produce shelves; cherries barely had a season; strawberries are still overwhelmingly expensive and just now starting to look good; and avocado prices are beyond reasonable. Even watermelons are expensive still.

So to make summer feel a little bit more like summer, we bought some of the quintessential California summer fruit--apricots!

Now, when I say we bought some, I really mean we bought 20+ pounds of apricots. At our local produce market, the Berkeley Bowl, you can buy flats of fruit at slightly reduced prices. If you ask one of the produce managers, they will rummage around in back and find a flat which they'll then price for you and send up to the cashiers when you're ready to check out.

This was only about half of the apricots.

We ended up getting our 20+ pound box of apricots for $21.50. Of course, you have to be committed to either eating or processing 20 pounds or more of a certain type of fruit.

We made about 8 pounds of jam, and ate the rest! I had planned to make fruit leather or sorbet out of the remainders, but 12 pounds of apricots disappear pretty quickly when you eat 20 a day!

I ate so many apricots that I don't think I ever want to eat an apricot again. But I will, next June, when apricots come back in season.


How do you know it's summer time? What's your favorite summer food? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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