Apricots Apricots Every Where

The place we are leasing for pasture for our cows has an old abandoned house in front of it with tons of fruit trees...  So, early this spring I called Mr. Owner and asked if he was going to do anything with the trees, if he wasn't would he mind if I did?  He, being an old bachelor, was not going to do anything with it and please do whatever you want with them.  So Mr. H. and I went out and killed all the bag worms growing on them and decided it was too late in the year for spraying and pruning so we sat back and waited to see what the harvest would be.  Below is the first tree that is ripe, a big beautiful apricot tree!

 Loaded!  I worked for about 2.5 hours picking....

 I did eat a few as I went to make sure they were good :)

 67 pounds!!!!!!!!

Then it was home to process and below are the results.....

 Dehydrated.... The first batch I did not use any kind of sweetener, now I know why store bought dried apricots are loaded with sugar!  These dudes were TART!  The second batch I did a honey water mix and soaked them, they are much easier to eat!

Apricots in a sugar syrup for pies, apricot syrup for waffles, and apricot jam for toast and biscuits!

 Syrup

 Jam

 Sugar syrup

And the apricot syrup on waffles.  Deeelish!

Things I learned along the way....

1) if you eat too many apricots they will make your teeth very sensitive

2) you can make apricot jam without pectin, we'll see if it really sets up in a couple weeks like it's suppose to

3) EVERYONE wants to reap the benefits of your hard labor.  "Apricots are my favorite fruit", "If you give me some apricots I'll make jam with my kids", "If you make me an apricot pie I'll give you a hug and come get it" and on and on and on.  hahaha, Back off, this is my reward for my hard work, go find your own tree!  Well, I did do the nice thing and shared some but not many!  ;-)

4) I really enjoy canning and being productive!