Apricot

A short, glorious fresh season

Fresh apricots have one of the shortest seasons of any common fruit — typically 4-6 weeks in early summer. Pick before fully ripe and they’re starchy and bland; let them fully ripen on the tree and they’re so soft they barely survive transport.

This is why most people only know apricots as dried fruit or jam — fresh apricots are a fleeting, regional pleasure.

Turkey’s dried-apricot empire

Turkey produces about half the world’s dried apricots, mostly from the Malatya region. The fruit is sun-dried (or sulfur-treated to maintain orange color and longer shelf life) and exported globally. Untreated dried apricots turn dark brown and are sometimes labeled “natural” or “unsulfured.”

The dried fruit has roughly 5x the calories per gram of fresh, and concentrates the sugar and vitamins.

The pit and amaretto

Inside the apricot stone is a small almond-like seed. In small quantities, it’s used to make amaretto liqueur and adds a bitter-almond note to Italian baking. In larger quantities, it can release dangerous amounts of cyanide — hence the persistent (and dangerous) “laetrile” cancer-cure folk medicine that’s killed people over the decades.

A few seeds in baking are fine; eating cups of them is not.

Persian and Central Asian heritage

Apricots originated in Central Asia and remain central to Persian, Armenian, and Turkic cuisine — used in pilaf, stews, and preserves. The Latin name armeniaca reflects the Roman belief that the fruit came from Armenia, though its actual origin is likely further east in China.