Harvest Savers - Apricots

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned getting 9 lbs of apricots from a "good neighbors" yard that I had met just before she moved. Last weekend past we put up most of those for use later on through the year and processed some for our use now. It's something that we're trying to do more of, canning and preserving that is. Last year we did can some pickles and a little of this and that but this year we are making a concerted effort to do all that we can to eat what we can and can what we can't. This applies not only to food that we grow on our own, but as well to foods that we get at good prices from local farmers and you-pick-it farms and even to foods that are basically foraged such as the apricots we had this weekend. Foraging is not something that I'm too proud to do. In years past it was often looked at disdainfully to waste food. That includes food that grew wild, or was left unattended. I see it as a waste of Gods bounty and when I am able to take advantage of it (within the law and the bounds of good ethics of course) I will.

The apricots that we were able to get were very near there peak of ripeness and only a few of them were of sufficient firmness to be able to handle traditional canning without turning to mush. Because of this A~ decided to process nearly half of them into Apricot syrup to enjoy with our Saturday sourdough-pancake feasts. It came out incredible!

That's them in front, we got two pints and one half pint. In back you can see the three quarts and one pint of canned apricots. Of course we ate quite a few of them fresh as well. When we were processing for the canned apricots, we ended up with a few pieces of softer sections that wouldn't have canned well, but the rest of the fruit was firm. We cut those pieces off and A~ found a recipe for an apricot basil dressing that sounded tasty so we made up a big batch.

We've used it so far as a marinade for some chicken and it gave it a great flavor (although in the future we would salt the chicken before grilling it.) Have some extra apricots or find a great deal on some at the farmers market? Here's the recipe.

Apricot Basil Dressing
2 apricots
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar
1tbsp fresh basil (or 1 tsp. dry basil)
1 /4 cup vegetable oil

Combine 2 fresh ripe apricots (pitted), 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar and 1 Tbsp. sugar in blender, whirl until blended. With blender running, slowly add 1/4 cup vegetable oil until thick and smooth. Stir in 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil. Makes 1 cup.

More canned stuff to come later. How're things canning up around your 'stead? Any great success? Failures? (They happen to us all... we lost a couple of cans of carrots earlier in the season, but I'll cover those to come.)

Have a great weekend all.

P~

The logo used at the top of this post is for the Harvest Keepers challenge sponsored by Path to Freedom.