In and Around the Garden

Fruit Gallery #1:  First Crop

I walked around the grocery-store produce bins looking for fresh fruit with prices below two dollars per pound. I spotted apricots beautifully arranged between yellow and white peaches. Apricots are not my favorite fruit, but they were in season which meant they were affordable. I picked out those less ripe—my husband, Joe, likes his fruit crunchy—and finished my stopping.

At home I grabbed three grocery bags from the back of the car, stepped into the kitchen, and lifted the bags onto the counter next to a small bucket of fresh-picked apricots. I figured they came from one of the men in Joe’s construction crew. During harvest season, he often comes home with tomatoes, peaches, asparagus, and cherries.

Since we don’t have a backyard orchard, imagine my surprise when Joe told me later that we have an apricot tree!

Joe discovered it among the eucalyptus trees. The apricot tree is straggly, miss-shaped, and appears to be connected to a large eucalyptus root. As long as the little tree is happy, and with a little TLC, we should have a larger crop next year, at zero dollars per pound.

Apricots are a great source of vitamin A  and potassium. For more nutritional facts click on:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/HHFS_APRICOTS_100210-July2012.pdf

To watch a video on growing apricots from seed click on: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS8jQoWSqaU