The trees were large and very old. Because the now-renters live on this borrowed property, the trees are not sprayed or cared for causing the fruit to have blemishes. These blemishes are called blight or corundum blight or shot-hole. The fruit had small brown specks over most of the surfaces and they looked daunting, but could still be eaten, they just weren't as aesthetically pleasing. So we picked quite a few. We gave them a water bath with Thieves cleaner
and then separated them into over-ripe, ripe and under-ripe piles.
The process was labor intensive but rewarding. I then made a batch of "Apricot Fool" or Kisiel Morelowy which is a Polish dessert or used in baking as a filling for donuts and sweet bread.
Then halved about 2 dozen apricots and placed them in my dehydrator and the rest, filled 4 quart and 2 gallon zip-locks for the freezer and later recipes. There was still a good sized bowl remaining that we will eat for snacks as they ripen.
Although the skins were unsightly, the flesh inside was divine! And the sweetness was unmatched. You barely need sugar due to the natural sweetness.
And the view on our way home was stunning with Mount Shasta in the distance. This was a productive day and I am saving a few apricot pits to hopefully start my own trees some day.
"All things are God's already; we can give Him no right, by consecrating any, that He had not before, only we set it apart to His service. Just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord's before as now."
~ John Selden
