Apricots of Old

Our very young apricot tree has been bent under the weight of an enormous number of apricots relative to its size.  This little tree has been starved of water, blown about by gale force cold and hot winds, ignored and then finally given a little TLC in the last two months in the form of fertilizer, water and mulch.  We’ve been holding off picking the fruit in order to get the most flavour from them through ripening in the summer sun, expecting the fruit to be blown off or taken by the birds.  Yesterday we saw a lot of ants going in and out of some holes in the fruit, so we picked them all.  Some of the fruit were scoffed within one metre radius of the tree, but here is a photo of the rest of the fruit.

I wasn’t expecting the fruit to be fully ripe and flavourful, but I was wrong.  These Blenheim Apricots are the most stunningly flavoured fruit – GO OUT AND BUY A TREE…NOW!!!  These are apricots reminiscent of your childhood, not of Woolworths.