There are so many benefits to heading out for flower photo ops on foot. This means NO car is necessary. You just wander about a neighborhood and make discoveries. And this season an incredible by-product of my wandering was the discovery of Santa Fe’s APRICOT TREES! I had no idea the city had so many of these trees!
For someone who absolutely LOVES these golden gems it was like finding gold!
Each year when apricots are in season at the grocery store or farmers market I spend a butt-load of money on them. Next to black plums, these are by far my favorite stone fruit. Yes, Colorado peaches are incredible too (that’s where most peaches sold in Santa Fe come from – Colorado’s Western Slope). And if you’ve ever had a Palisade’s peach, you know how crazy-good they are! But for me, apricots are on a whole other level. I suppose it’s the tangy sweetness that I love.
So when by absolute chance, I discovered Santa Fe’s fruiting apricot trees all over the areas I frequent, I went on a mission: Gather as many as possible!
This was no small task given I began encountering fruiting trees everywhere. It got to a point where I began carrying a bag specifically to gather them in!
It’s unclear why so many trees fruited this year? It may have been the mild winter? But who was I to question what Mother Nature was generously bringing forth to my all-too welcoming palette!
While this is clearly a departure from my usual flower posts, I felt it was worth sharing…
Different Sizes of Golden Goodness
The first fruiting apricot tree I came across was en-route to photograph some blooming Cholla. I noticed what I believed to be apricots on the ground under a tree and began to gather them. A woman happened to be walking by and said “you know those are apricots”. Let’s just say she confirmed my joy.
These first ones happened to be the most incredible apricots I had every tasted. They also turned out to be larger than the other apricots I would gather in the days and weeks ahead.
No worries of pesticides or any other nastiness. Just Mother Nature doing her thing. I was in heaven!
Normally I can only find apricots for sale for a few weeks (they have a short season) and they can be quite expensive ranging from $3.00 to $8.00 per lb for organic. But as it turns out, with this natural bounty, I had access to this fruit for almost two months!!
I definitely noticed different sizes of the fruits. Some smaller and others larger but all were tasty. Most of the ones I gathered were from those that had fallen from trees on their own and there was an abundance of them. For the record, apricot trees can get HUGE and the trees are quite beautiful with their lovely green foliage! One tree was so enormous and filled with fruit, it was impossible to gather them all – and lord knows I tried! The down side to this is how much fruit gets wasted and there’s A LOT!!
It got to a point where I could not walk anywhere without coming a cross a fruiting apricot tree. YES, there were that many. It’s like every time I turned a corner or walked down a side street – of which there are many in Santa Fe, I’d come across another fruiting tree.
Another strategy I employed was keeping a big Mason jar in my car. If I was driving around and noticed a tree with fallen fruit I’d jump out and gather! I even nick-named myself “the crazy apricot lady”.
It was hard to hide my enthusiasm and I was having so much fun – not to mention in awe. The major perk was literally not buying any fruit for well over 6 weeks. Apricots were my main-stay and I was loving it!
What to Do with All that Fruit?
My fridge had reached a tipping point. It was so filled with apricots that there was no more room. I had bowls and bowls of them. And I must say, they keep in the fridge surprisingly well. They’re actually pretty bomb-proof little buggers and no where near as fragile as peaches. And with the volume of them I ate, not one was mealy or mushy. Peaches can be a crap-shoot like that.
Now it was time to get creative. First things first, I found a super easy recipe for apricot jam – all of three ingredients and made that. I went lighter on the sugar and heavier on the fresh lemon juice. This made for a perfect balance of tang and sweetness. Given I had NEVER made jam before, I was thrilled with the outcome. Nothing beats a fridge with Mason jars filled with home-made golden goodness!
Now what does one do with all that jam? Well for starters, I called this South Jersey meets Santa Fe. A bagel with cream cheese topped with apricot jam. Soooo good!
This became a breakfast staple for the last two months. I’ve also added the jam to my morning yogurt and as a topping for waffles.
Then I decided to try an apricot cobbler. Again I went lighter on the sugar and heavier on the lemon juice and went full on brown sugar and butter for the topping. This was incredible and warranted vanilla ice cream. I went through THREE batches of apricot cobbler!!
Needless to say, the pounds of apricots I gathered around Santa Fe did not go to waste! I celebrated all of these golden gems that were bestowed upon me for free. Who is to say if there will be this bounty next year?
Birds Get Their Fair Share Too
A side note is – as these fruits ripen on the trees, birds can make a mess of them! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about sharing, but birds are wasteful too! They will peck away at just a part of the apricot and then go on to the next one. I noticed this happening more later in the season. It was a bummer so I learned to gather what I could with gratitude and leave the rest for the birds – literally 🙂