Sweet summer stone fruit is just starting to make an appearance at all weekly Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Markets.
We kicked off the first week of May with a great assortment of exceptional cherries, which will increase exponentially in availability over the coming weeks. The next crop that followed close behind were those deliciously sweet aromatic apricots, which were available in decent quantities at this past Saturday’s farmers market.
Praised for their tangy thin skin, super-sweet flesh and amazing aroma, fresh apricots are now ready for pick-up at most of your local farmers markets.
Apricots can be utilized in several ways, in addition to simply enjoying them fresh as they come.
Because of the relatively short seasonal window, it is quite common for local farmers market patrons to be seen loading up on fresh apricots by the box load, to then be brought back to their kitchens and transformed into preserves, sauces, salsas, syrups or stored in freezer bags to be enjoyed throughout the year. The balance of the apricots’ sweet flesh and tangy skin truly delivers an exceptional flavor to prepared apricots products, and store extremely well throughout the year.
Because fresh apricots are typically not the best travelers, you should be a little more open-minded when it comes to your selection process, as flavor almost always surpasses physical appearance.
As apricots start to ripen, there is typically about a three-day window as they turn from a yellowish color and firm texture to deep orange in color with their juicy soft flesh. Once this level of peak maturity and flavor has been reached, any soft touch to the fruit’s skin can cause slight visible bruising, although the flavor will remain as tasty as ever. When selecting your fruit, look first for this deep orange color, as those tend to have the strongest aroma, sweetest flavor and highest juice content.
Apricots are a very versatile fruit, perfect to enjoy with any meal of the day, and they make for a great afternoon snack. They’re great when sliced into your breakfast cereal (hot and cold), sliced into a fruit salad, used for baking a great apricot crisp, cobbler,or pie, and perfect for making fresh home-made preserves.
They are also great when lightly grilled. Simply cut apricots in half and place them on soaked skewers.
Brush apricots with honey and grill for about 3 minutes until tender. They come out with a great sweet and smoky flavor.
They can then be enjoyed as a great side, or used to make a grilled apricot salsa as seen below. Enjoy the salsa with fresh chips, to top your freshly grilled meats or fish (notably pork and halibut), or to roll inside of your homemade tacos.
Fresh Apricot Salsa
One-pound fresh ripe apricots, pits removed, diced.
1 small red onion, diced.
1 tablespoon of a hot pepper (jalapeño or Serrano) stem and seeds removed, finely diced.
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice.
One-quarter cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped.
One-half firm avocado, diced.
Garlic (or regular) salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste.
Combine all ingredients, toss to evenly coat, and set aside in the refrigerator.
