Preserving green apricot

green apricot

green apricot

The apricot trees are still loaded with fruit, the recent windy weather did not manage to shake any down. So in order to have more tasty fruits, and do not want to stress the young trees too much, I decided to manually remove some. 

green apricot

This action is also motivated by knowing that the Japanese sour plum, Ume, is actually a close relative to apricot. So why not use this opportunity to salt some green apricot to make Umeboshi, and keep some in sugar and alcohol to imitate sour plum wine, used as summer drink.

I followed the recipe from Preserving the Japanese way.

Apricot Umeboshi

salted green apricot

Wash apricot and place in a large shallow dish, add 8% its weight of salt, cover and keep in cool place. Liquid will start to come out to form brine. Keep in the brine for 2-3 weeks, then take the fruit out to dry, and they are ready to use.

Sour apricot liqueur

sour apricot liqueur

Place green apricot in jar, add 25-50% (depending on how sweet you like it) its weight of sugar, cover with your choice of alcohol, I used grappa from grapes. Keep in cool place for 3 months.