This will be the fourth year that I am devoting a blog post to one of my absolute favorite fruits: Angelcots®.
Angelcots® are white-fleshed apricots grown exclusively by one farmer in a small micro-climate in Northern California. The season is short (usually 4 to 5 weeks), but unfortunately this year, due to high winds and strange weather, the complete harvest of the crop took place during 10 days. And due to wind damage, the crop size was reduced by 25 percent.
Read my Angelcot® posts from 2010 and 2011. They truly are a taste of heaven.
My recommendation is if you are looking for a wonderfully flavored fruit, visit our website for a list of supermarkets (nationwide) that have ordered Angelcots® from us, and go buy them this weekend. I will be going to my local Trader Joe’s and Ralphs to buy mine. I will probably purchase two or three packages, since supplies are so limited.
Many friends often ask me how to ripen stone fruit once you get it home from the supermarket. Ever find some wonderfully aromatic peaches or nectarines but they are hard as rocks? Well, here is my “secret.”
Get a brown paper bag — they are the perfect ripening mechanism. When I was in St. Louis a few weeks ago, I saw that Schnucks Market offered free brown bags adjacent to their stone fruit displays.
When you get home, do not wash the fruit. Put as much fruit as you will want to eat in a day or two, inside the brown bag and fold the top over. Leave the bag on the counter (out of the sun), in a cool, dry area.
Check the ripeness each day. It should take a day or two for the fruit to ripen perfectly. Do not refrigerate the fruit, but consume it right away. (Wash it after it has ripened.)
There is nothing like a perfectly ripened nectarine, sliced over the sink, as an afternoon snack. Actually, it is one of my favorite summertime treats.
Enjoy the fruits of summer. What a perfectly healthy, good tasting way to snack!
Karen
