Perfectly Preserved Podcast Ep 49 - All things apricots!

Oh boy, where do I begin with my love affair with apricots. I suppose it began in 2009 when we bought our first house in Ogden, UT. When we did our initial walk through I noticed a beautiful large tree out front filled with green fruit. I had seen apricot trees but never up close. By the time we had keys in our hands the tree was BURSTING with fruit. 

Something clicked inside me and I went to WORK. I didn't want to waste any of that perfect fruit. I grew up in Alaska where there are not many fruit trees. Moose tend to eat any fruit you get and then strip the bark in the wintertime. Most of my experience with foraging or growing things came from searching for blueberry patches and raspberries but that's it!

I immediately went out to my local bookstore and bought a $10 copy of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. I studied it and used every recipe in there for apricots. I learned how to make an apricot BBQ sauce and asian sauce for chicken dishes. I baked cakes with cut up apricots. I was smitten.

I come from a long line of farmers and preservers. Grandmothers and Grandfathers, Greats and Great Greats all leading the way, imprinting in my DNA this necessity and love for preserving. My namesake, Anna Pulos Massey, my paternal grandmother preserved a LOT. They lived in Vernal, UT and would drive over the mountains to Colorado to pick up bushels and bushels of fruit to put up. My dad regales me with stories of getting homemade fruits and jams from the pantry as a child.

I love teaching and talking about this topic because a lot of the necessity is gone to preserve your own food. But, it's so necessary that it's not lost. Jenny and I love what we do on the podcast and we hope you do to!