Mmmmm...apricots. We got a whole bunch of them in our door to door order this week. Apricots hold a special place in my memories.When I was growing up in southern California, we had a huge apricot tree in the middle of our backyard. I remember the taste of them, picked ripe right off the tree. I remember filling our old red wagon with fallen fruit and concocting all kinds of "recipes" with them. I remember climbing high in the tree to find that one perfect apricot - firm, fuzzy skin with a soft, juicy inside that tastes like sunshine. Orange with just a blush of pink. You bite and it falls apart and the small brown seed drops into your hand.
Eventually, our tree became infected with some sort of bug that slowly killed it. We had someone come and remove the tree the following summer. I wasn't more than 10, but I still remember the feeling of losing that tree. Standing on the stump where I had formerly climbed a 30 foot tree was a sad experience.
But, I still smile when I bite into an apricot. They are sunshine and wind and freedom and fun.
When I was a kid in So Cal we had several apricot trees (along with avocado, pear, plum and fig). I remember my mom making fresh apricot preserves every August. It was sooooo hot, and we didn't have any air conditioning, but she did it anyway. Then we had wonderful jams and jellies for months. They were incredible.
ReplyDeleteThat smell... there's nothing like it in the world. The air in our house was so hot and thick with cooked sugar and fruit that you could taste it. Really.
That's a particularly sweet memory for me (pun intended).
Does anybody still do that kind of thing? I hope that kind of homemaking doesn't go away with that generation...
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