June 4, 2012

The apricot harvest has begun in earnest. Last weekend we picked a dozen or so and ditto for this week. Lucy, our dog has helped bring in the drops as she did last year. (For details, see this post).

Yesterday afternoon my husband, Ken and I picked 18 pounds of apricots, about 70% of them from the ‘Gold Kist’ apricot tree. The 'Blenheim’ will be the late harvest as many of them are still green. The 'Royal’ will be sandwiched between those two. Ken is a scientist and not given to exaggeration. He asserts we haven’t picked even 10% of the crop.

We have three varieties of apricots planted together in one 4 foot square raised bed. They are pruned as if one tree and we have a staggered harvest. Also if conditions aren’t right for fruit set of one variety, we still have a chance with the other two. See my post from last year for images and discussion about backyard orchard culture.

Cooked apricots to go with Sunday morning waffles.