I picked well over 50 pounds of apricots that dropped off my tree today and have well over 100 pounds more to pick. I am proud of picking these apricots, because I badly hurt my left knee early last week and then tore it worse on Sunday. I could not walk for three days. I had steroids injected in my knee on Tuesday. I am scheduled for an MRI. I had to lay on the ground to pick the apricots, but got most of it done. It hurt terribly, but I am glad I did it.




The tree I got the fruit from came from a peach tree I bought, along with a lot of other fruit trees from Walmart, around 9 years ago. The peach tree had fruit on it when I bought it. The next year most of the tree died, but I trained one branch as the new leader, that also had peaches. The next year the tree died to the graft. I let the root stock grow. It's become a huge tree with thousands of pieces of fruit on it. I've been thinking they were small, white peaches, but now think they are apricots, because of the size, lower sugar content and less juice. There seems to be not much other difference between apricots and peaches.

The seeds from the apricots readily sprout and grow very fast. I had a bunch going, that Diane, who has almost never weeded, thought were weeds and pulled. I have one seedling that sprouted this year that's close to 30" already. I'm to graft peaches on it and grow a bunch more to graft onto.

I'm planning to make mostly booze with the apricots.

What do you like to make with apricots? I have plenty to work with.

Keith

Dried apricots are good to carry backpacking and I like apricot preserves on toast.

Brandy

cobbler

Booze, brandy to be specific.

My apricot tree took a turn for the worse this year, 75% of the branches are dead.
All the years I've had it , only got a few apricots off it.
Bloom two weeks before the peach trees would, then have plenty of fruit on it , and a freeze would hit just before the peach trees would bloom.
Always had peaches , but few apricot.
I wonder if the peach tree stock that you grafted to , is the reason?
Does it bloom same time as peaches?
Then again you're an hour or so south of me , so that could be the difference.

Nothing

Cobbler, dried, and jam, jam being my favorite

No idea with fresh ones

But my mom can make some dang good fried pies with the dried ones

My aunt had an apricot tree. I still remember the taste of her preserves. Ate quite a few right off the tree too.

I would do what Danny suggested preserves. Rub the all over meat like ham, bake makes a real good rub/glaze.

YUP!

Dried apricots, apricot jam, and apricot shine

If you substitute Apricots with tomatoes you can make a nice spaghetti sauce with them. other than that, apricots are best used for making compost

Thanks to everyone who responded, even Jalstat and Scuba1, who gave very truthful answers.

We are going to make dried apricots, preserves/jam, cobbler, brandy and amaretto.

BTLowry, how did your mom make the apricot fry pies? I've barely heard of them. They sound good.

Ohio Wolverine, we are in South East, Champaign County, Ohio, half an hour straight West of Columbus, Ohio. This tree has had fruit every year. It flowers earlier than the peaches, overlapping just a little. It's been frosted numerous times, but bears fruit anyways. The bees really like it. It was the root stock for the peach tree I bought. If you want some seeds to grow, I will give you some. I would guess they will produce fruit pretty close to form starting in 3 years. I have never kept any seedlings from it to see how they turn out, because it already produces so much and because I put my effort into peaches in a good peach year. I got 0 peaches and nectarines this year and just a few handfuls of plums.

Keith

I don't make 'em, but I love most any pastry with Apricots!

I've used them for jam, canned them like peaches, and dried them. Lots of fruit desserts are good with them.

I've been picking a lot of apricots still, well over 200 pounds so far. I grossly underestimated how many apricots there are. I believe I'll get well over 300 pounds total.

My youngest brother, sister, brother in law and a bunch of friends are friends with a guy who owns a robotics lab, that also makes components for stills. He has a very large still and is licensed by the state to make and sell hard alcohol. Most of the apricots will be going through that still.

I ordered a Magic Mill Food Dehydrator from Amazon, that should come tomorrow. It looks like a good one. Our old, smaller dehydrator has been running 24/7 making dried apricots and fruit leather. Diane has eaten a prodigious amount of fruit leather.

There's still a lot on the tree.




Keith