He that planteth a tree is a servant of God, he provideth a kindness for many generations, and faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.
—Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)

Scripture describes a golden-orange fruit surrounded by pale green leaves, which may well be apricots. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Proverbs 25:11 KJV). Here a kind word is compared to the loveliness of golden fruit, which some botanical experts believe to be the apricot. Apricots grew plentifully in the Holy Lands in Bible times, while apples are a more recent introduction.

Dwarf apricot trees are recommended for gardeners with average size yards, for several reasons, including that the tree reaches only 8 to 10 feet tall, and that dwarf apricot trees provide fruit as early as their third year. If you have room you may want to plant a full size tree, which will reach 20 to 30 feet tall and live about 75 years. Apricots are ideal for zones 5 to 8, and many gardeners can find the right hot, sunny spot for this tree. Apricots prefer a full day of sun and are sensitive to frost, and in cold climates planting in a sunny, sheltered location provides needed protection from frost damage. The trees themselves are rather frost hardy but untimely frost can damage the fruits.

Stark Brothers is well known for the quality and selection of fruit trees that it sells. Their best all around apricot (Prunus armeniaca) is Wilson Delicious Dwarf Apricot, their heaviest bearer with impressive crops year after year, even way north. In zone 5 these apricots are ready for picking in early July. Stark Sweetheart Dwarf Apricot is a Stark exclusive, with ripe fruit in mid-July in zone 5. www.starkbros.com or 1-800-325-4180. Standard size trees yield 3 to 4 bushels of fruit and dwarf trees give 1 to 2 bushels.

There are apricots, Prunus mume, grown not for their fruit but for their abundant pink, white or red flowers, including Matsubara Red with its double dark red flowers in late winter and Rosemary Clarke with white flowers in early spring.

Apricots need water consistently throughout the growing season, in order to produce large fruit. Water deeply if needed every ten to fourteen days, if there is no rain. Under good growing conditions apricots get so much fruit that their weight can break branches, and the fruits will be small. To grow larger apricots, when the apricots are one inch across, it is best to thin the fruit to the three or four healthiest apricots per cluster. Of course, another advantage of dwarf apricots is that you don’t need a ladder to do the thinning or picking.

Apricot cobbler is an easy recipe to fix, whether with apricots from your tree in summer, or from a can at any season. A recipe we enjoy includes 3 cups of fresh apricots or two 14 oz. cans of apricots, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 cup of milk and 6 tbsp. melted butter.

Pour the melted butter into a baking dish to coat the dish. Mix the dry ingredients until just combined, add the milk to the mix and add to the baking dish. Pour undrained apricots over the mix and do not stir. If you like you can use fresh apricots, and you can add a bit of brown sugar on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. This apricot cobbler is delicious on its own, or with vanilla ice cream on the side. Using Bisquick is an excellent alternate way to make cobblers. Since we have an abundance of blackberries growing in our backyard, we add blackberries to the apricots. Do you have any favorite recipes for cobblers, or apricots?

Copyright © by Terra Hangen

Photo of apricots at top of page courtesy of Wikimedia.org, per Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.