Thursday, January 8, 2015

The Last Fruits of Summer...


Hello Dhaaarlings...

I've spent the last few weeks picking an enormous quantity of fresh Apricots ripe from the tree in the back yard and frankly I'm exhausted...
There is only so much Jam Making and Bottling/Canning that one can do with the huge crop of fruit that we have had this year... 
It has been an exceptional season!

Fortunately the fruit ripened gradually over the two to three weeks which meant that we didn't have a Glut of ripe fruit all at one time. 
But... with Christmas and New Year festivities occurring over the same period it just made finding the time for processing a little more difficult to manage...



This is the tree almost stripped of fruit... and surrounded by split and rotting fruit strewn on the ground beneath it...


 Here is one of the remaining clusters of fruit...and these are quite small in comparison to what we have already picked and processed.
 Every branch was covered and I mean COVERED in clusters of beautiful plump ripening apricots just like these. I've never seen a tree with so much fruit on it before...
I've turned 6 kilo of it into jam... The Empress Bottled/ Canned at least 20 kilo's!  We have another 10 kilo that we have frozen whole to make jam later in the year plus...
 given away another 15 kg frozen
 to neighbours and friends to make jam... and...
That's without counting the fresh fruit that we have also given away to friends and family... consumed ourselves or... that had gone rotten and had to be thrown out because we just ran out of time to process them... Nor does it include the fruit that remains on or under the tree that had been eaten by the local critters, birds, nocturnal fruit bats and the occasional rat.
All this from one tree!

We certainly won't starve for a little while at least!

Apricot Jam Anyone?

12 comments:

  1. They are gorgeous.
    I've had all kinds of fruit and fruit trees in my life, but never apricots, now that I'm in Cleveland, Ohio I think my jamming days are behind me,( but I've said that before)...
    Happiest of New Years to You and Yours !

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  2. You need to open Prinny's Fruit Stand alongside the road!

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  3. What beautiful fruit! I'm sure the homemade preserves are delicious. Maybe you could sell some jars at a local farmer's market?

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  4. One hopes that you didn't have to release The Freakin' Green Elf Shorts from their prison jar to bottle apricots?

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  5. Oh, the joys of the tropics! Apricots are quite unknown as trees in London, outside the most sheltered stately home gardens - I certainly envy your climate... We have acquired an espalier of apple trees, rather neglected unfortunately by previous tenants, in the gardens of Dolores Delargo Towers #3. If only I could afford a press, I could save a fortune making my own cider! Jx

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  6. Congratulations, what a harvest ! Are you making the jam more of the sweet variety or more "sour" or bitter ? It may be a silly question, but all yellow jams I encountered were pretty bitter to my taste. Do you have a cherry tree too ?

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  7. How about Apricot wine???
    I was squinting at the picture... fits in nicely with the year of arse theme.
    Sx

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  8. How about sun dried apricots? My mother uses her under floor heating to dry out tomatoes and a whole array of soft fruits.

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  9. Oh yes Mitzi is right!!!!! Sun dried apricots are relish. Just yesterday for luncheon I had a selection of cheeses with nuts and dried apricots. Meanwhile I love jam on my toast yes send a slew......





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  10. They're beautiful.
    I love apricots! They're my favorite jam. I had a delicious apricot/pistachio tart once in Paris.

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