Whenever I think about apricots, I can't help thinking about the huge gnarly apricot tree in the backyard of our cottage in Santa Monica. It probably was planted at the time the house was built, in the 1920s, and was mostly dead. There was one living portion of the tree, and the year we moved in, we pruned and watered and fed the tree with plant fertilizer spikes. We were rewarded the next two years with an abundant harvest of apricots so juicy that when you bit into one, the juice ran down your arm. Their fragrance of was ambrosial. Many fruit trees have a finite life, and orchardists will girdle the trunk in the year before they plan to cut down the tree, which reponds by putting out a final burst of fruit. Our old apricot tree's swan song was the second huge crop, and despite feeding it again, we had no more fruit from it for the rest of the years we lived there. But I remember sprawling in a lounge chair under the tree, reaching up to pluck orb after orb from its branches, gorging on that glorious fruit. Every apricot I have eaten since, even those I've had shipped to me from a California orchard, have been a disappointment.
Oh, Zora! What a beautiful tribute to your apricot tree! I could set myself right inside the picture you paint - the scent, the juice...A fine apricot is a rare thing. I bought a punnet recently at what I thought was a reliable source - a Middle East market. They were entirely tasteless.
Spot on! I recently had Georgian food in Bari, Italy. Since then Georgian cuisine keeps pinging my culinary radar.
I first experienced stone fruit with meat and veg in a tagine prepared for me by a French student in Lyon just below the confluence of Les Deux Fleuves...your writing and adventuring makes my heart light and my feet want to wander. I live in ME... Maine that is and have never explored the Middle East but I can see now its either there or Japan.
I suspect Georgian food and wine is about to become The Next Big Thing. (In London currently, that's a competition between Sri Lankan and West African cuisines.) But try and sample both in Georgia itself - one of the world's most sumptuous nations of wonderful welcoming people and remarkable produce and spectacular scenery, all readily accessible once you're there - before direct flights make it open to all and sundry to flood.
Just chatted with a Turkish friend at breakfast... our shared love of fresh fruit and veg, Turkish breakfasts, Izmir...you're right it's time to go. Have you ever eaten an orange dew melon? It's a cross between a cantaloupe and a honey dew melon.... just writing about makes me want to hope into my car and get some at my green grocer.
Never heard of an orange dew! I have a fond memory at a birthday in France of the cavity in a perfectly ripe chilled canteloupe filled up with white port.
In France, they make a candied peel out of melon rind. Personally, I think it's a waste of sugar. But cantaloupe jam sounds delicately elegant. (Have a try of the port in a ripe one...I really recommend it, both very chilled. The port and the melon juice complement one another.)
Having lived in the ME and explored the region extensively over the last few decades, I’ve become a fan of apricots, and will definitely try the recipe! And yes, Georgian apricots in season are beyond magnificent!
Georgia has some kind of secret beyond the quality of its soil and climate. I've not eaten cucumbers or tomatoes as fine anywhere else - including Italy, Greece and Turkey. Lucky you to have had years of access to sumptuous ME produce.
Whenever I think about apricots, I can't help thinking about the huge gnarly apricot tree in the backyard of our cottage in Santa Monica. It probably was planted at the time the house was built, in the 1920s, and was mostly dead. There was one living portion of the tree, and the year we moved in, we pruned and watered and fed the tree with plant fertilizer spikes. We were rewarded the next two years with an abundant harvest of apricots so juicy that when you bit into one, the juice ran down your arm. Their fragrance of was ambrosial. Many fruit trees have a finite life, and orchardists will girdle the trunk in the year before they plan to cut down the tree, which reponds by putting out a final burst of fruit. Our old apricot tree's swan song was the second huge crop, and despite feeding it again, we had no more fruit from it for the rest of the years we lived there. But I remember sprawling in a lounge chair under the tree, reaching up to pluck orb after orb from its branches, gorging on that glorious fruit. Every apricot I have eaten since, even those I've had shipped to me from a California orchard, have been a disappointment.
Oh, Zora! What a beautiful tribute to your apricot tree! I could set myself right inside the picture you paint - the scent, the juice...A fine apricot is a rare thing. I bought a punnet recently at what I thought was a reliable source - a Middle East market. They were entirely tasteless.
Spot on! I recently had Georgian food in Bari, Italy. Since then Georgian cuisine keeps pinging my culinary radar.
I first experienced stone fruit with meat and veg in a tagine prepared for me by a French student in Lyon just below the confluence of Les Deux Fleuves...your writing and adventuring makes my heart light and my feet want to wander. I live in ME... Maine that is and have never explored the Middle East but I can see now its either there or Japan.
The birds are calling and the sea awaits🧜🏼♀️
I suspect Georgian food and wine is about to become The Next Big Thing. (In London currently, that's a competition between Sri Lankan and West African cuisines.) But try and sample both in Georgia itself - one of the world's most sumptuous nations of wonderful welcoming people and remarkable produce and spectacular scenery, all readily accessible once you're there - before direct flights make it open to all and sundry to flood.
Just chatted with a Turkish friend at breakfast... our shared love of fresh fruit and veg, Turkish breakfasts, Izmir...you're right it's time to go. Have you ever eaten an orange dew melon? It's a cross between a cantaloupe and a honey dew melon.... just writing about makes me want to hope into my car and get some at my green grocer.
Never heard of an orange dew! I have a fond memory at a birthday in France of the cavity in a perfectly ripe chilled canteloupe filled up with white port.
Hmm...I only doctor up melon that isn't ripe.
But you inspired me to make granola with my cantaloupe jam
In France, they make a candied peel out of melon rind. Personally, I think it's a waste of sugar. But cantaloupe jam sounds delicately elegant. (Have a try of the port in a ripe one...I really recommend it, both very chilled. The port and the melon juice complement one another.)
Having lived in the ME and explored the region extensively over the last few decades, I’ve become a fan of apricots, and will definitely try the recipe! And yes, Georgian apricots in season are beyond magnificent!
Georgia has some kind of secret beyond the quality of its soil and climate. I've not eaten cucumbers or tomatoes as fine anywhere else - including Italy, Greece and Turkey. Lucky you to have had years of access to sumptuous ME produce.
Probably why they have such decadent wines, too 😉
Is that cake taking marriage proposals because I think it might be The One? 💍