Sundrop in Summer

In August, our apricot tree was in full bloom. It was so pretty but we had no idea what was in store!

The buds became tiny little fuzzy green fruit, and the fruit grew and grew and grew… Until…

We inherited the apricot tree in the garden of our new home. The previous owners kept many of the plant tags, and so we know that our tree is Prunus armeniaca ‘Sundrop‘, and it soon became covered in fruit.

We were a bit lazy about thinning the little green ovals… well, very lazy as we didn’t thin any. I was regretting this fact as the fruit began to ripen. There were bunches of 5-8 fruit all jammed together, and I was worried that they wouldn’t develop properly, or that they might be inferior, but I needn’t have worried.

One moment they were on the point of ripening, and the next thing we knew, they began to fall on the ground and kept dropping for two full weeks. It was even worse when it was breezy, or on the one day that it rained. Interestingly, they weren’t pecked by birds at all, and there obviously aren’t any possums in the neighbourhood. That’s a first!

So, during the very hot weather at the beginning of the month, each day, we were collecting, sorting, cutting and… of course… eating.

They turned out to be the sweetest, juiciest apricots I’d ever eaten, which surprised me. I’d always thought that the best New Zealand apricots came from Roxburgh.

I decided the sort them into ‘eating’, ‘freezing’, ‘stewing’, ‘infusing’ and ‘drying’. I had a system for using as much of the apricots as I could. Some I had to dip in water and lemon juice (those intended for drying), some I merely cut into small pieces for freezing (these I’ll use for jam or fresh sauces). Our compost heap became filled with sloshy pieces of apricots and hundreds of apricot stones.

Apricot Sauce

The really ripe ones that were still in good shape, I tossed immediately into a large pot for sauce. It was made in the usual way with malt vinegar, chopped apple, tomatoes, onions, some spices, some sugar and salt… and of course, apricots.

Dried Apricots

The soundest ones, the ones that looked perfect, I halved, and dried in our Excaliber dehydrator. This was the most time-consuming of all the processes, due to the juiciness and plumpness of the fruit, but we ended up with around 1300 grams of the dried apricots.

Apricot Liqueur

Apricot Liqueur

Other sound, ripe and juicy apricots, we tossed into a huge jar with a litre of brandy and a couple of cinnamon sticks. Hopefully it’ll end up as Apricot Liqueur in a few weeks. Fingers crossed.

Free for All

By the end of the first week we started to give away as many as we could. To neighbours, to friends and family. Some people turned them down, “We don’t eat apricots”. But we still had more.

By the time we’d processed the last sound apricot, I was beginning to feel that I never wished to see an apricot again.

But that was a week ago, and I’ve already forgiven them.

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Golden apricots
drop to the ground with a thud.
Ant gangs mobilise.

Jane Percival 23/12/2024