Well, the apricot crop that we have nurtured for so many months suffered a major blow on Tuesday June 28th in the form of 1.3" of rare June rainfall. The result is lots of splitting as the ripening fruit absorbed the water and swelled. And with fungus and mold problems already prevalent from our very wet spring, we expect to lose lots to rot. And what we do pick cannot be trusted to have much of a shelf life.
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| Splits in apricot skin allow mold and fungus |
So now with half the crop still on the trees we're in salvage mode, trying to put some of the fruit to good use while disposing of moldy fruit before it spreads its evil spawn.
So canners and jammers, sharpen your paring knives as now is your chance to pick up some bargain fruit.
It's first come, first served, but hurry since the heat wave coming in the next few days will complete a one-two punch on this year's cot crop. And this, folks, is why so many apricot orchards have been torn out over the years.
While we just have a backyard orchard, the rains this year left us with no fruit at all. Late Spring rains during flowering meant the bees couldn't pollinate. The few flowers that resulted in maybe a dozen fruit between our apricot, peach, plum, pear and nectarine trees were ruined by the June rains. :(
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