Apricots
By Elisabeth Anghel, Inland Empire Branch
Every season has its specific smell. For me the summer smells like fresh apricots. The smell is as strong when it comes from fresh fruits as well as from compote, fruit tart, gem, or soufflé. The apricot season starts mid-May until late July sometimes August if it is in a colder weather area. The fresh smell of an open apricot picked right from the tree in late morning has no comparison.
The apricots and the apricot trees were present in my life from an early age. My childhood home was in a suburb of Bucharest. We had a small comfortable house with a flower garden in the front, vegetable garden on the side and back, a chicken’s enclosure in the very back and along all the fences we had fruit trees. The design of the gardens and the actual planting was done by my paternal grandfather. My grandparents built this house when they were in their late fifties, so our three-generation family would have a home to live and grow.
It was during the time just after WW2 and housing was insufficient. Even with all the hardships, families could be allowed to build a dwelling if they would agree to move away from the capital proper. And this is what my family did. We moved away from the big city into the new neighborhoods that started in its outskirts. People were modest, blue collar railroad workers families, many kids playing in the street, busy summers playing volleyball in the street or dancing on a neighbor’s porch until late evening. School days we would walk in large groups, by age, to the newly built school.
We had many beautiful, quiet and fragrant summers in that home. From the springtime of trees blooming until late fall when we picked the last of the quinces, we had fresh fruits. Back then it was a big deal. Fresh fruits were scarce and very expensive. The producers would go to the capital to sell and make more money. The farmers markets in the outskirts were very poor with little produce and not of quality. We were fortunate to enjoy our beautiful and full home garden.
We had two apricot trees. The apricot trees are amongst the first to bloom in spring. They are in full bloom from the beginning to middle of April. Many times in the climate we were living at that time, April could
bring wet snow storms. I remember looking out the window and being worried that the trees will get hurt. The cold and wet snow would melt away easily by the next day and rarely the trees and the future crop were harmed.
Now I live far away from my childhood place. This spring is particularly difficult because we are living through a pandemic. Everyone is fearful, sad, disoriented. In all turmoil I have a friend from a long time ago to help me… It is the apricot tree. On the property where I live now, there is an apricot tree. It was a great surprise twenty years ago when I discovered it, as I thought first that Riverside grows only citrus. Second, I thought apricot trees, being a four-season plant, the heat would destroy it. I was wrong on both counts. The old tree, still up and producing beautiful fruits, is joined by two other apricot trees that my
husband and I planted when we moved in. The joy of their flowering season, the beautiful and fragranced fruits and the bounty of jam jars I cook, give me a sense of hope.
Good health and peace will be back with all of us sooner than later.
“Apricots” originally appeared in Fresh Ink,
newsletter of the Inland Empire Branch.