The History Of Apricots

The apricot is a delicious fruit, but one with surprises in store. The fruit is as temperamental as its tree, and still answers to a false name. It was long thought that apricots were a kind of plum and came from Armenia, and botanists continue to follow Linnaeus in calling it Prunus armeniaca. It is a member of the Rosaceae family.

The apricot really comes from China, like the peach, and it, too, has a history there going back 5000 years. Five thousand years of domestication, however, have not entirely tamed it. It spread from China to northern India, the Punjab, and Tibet, where it ripens perfectly on sunny slopes up to 3000 metres. Why, then, is it such an unreliable cropper in our temperate regions, to the despair of nurserymen?

The history of apricots, a fruit tree, should bear well at least one year out of two. A late frost or a strong wind can destroy all hope of the blossom, which, admittedly, is very early. However, the apricot quite likes the Mediterranean climate, particularly in the Roussillon area.

Another enemy of the apricot tree, which likes limy and even stony soil, is drought, which can undo the grafting in a single night, giving it a fatal seizure that shrivels it within a few days. It will not accept any ordinary fertilizer or manure either. The volume of fertilizer must be carefully adjusted to the soil’s nature, determined by chemical analysis, which may yield different results from year to year.

Names Of The Apricot Tree

Even the name of the apricot, which in French was aubercot until the fifteenth century, has not just one simple etymology but is a combination of several, involving considerable juxtaposition of ideas. On the one hand, we have Portuguese albricoque, Spanish albaricoque, and Italian albicocca, all from Arabic al barqoug or al birgia, for the Iberian peninsula owed much to the Arab gardeners of Andalusia. The Arabic word means ‘early-ripe’, and itself derives from Latin praecox or praecoquum malum (in Greek, praecoxon), an early-ripening fruit, the name the Romans gave the apricot when it was brought back by legionaries returning from the Near East in the first century.

Being easy to eat, it was also called aperitum (fruit that opens easily), and there is an association with Greek abros, delicate, because it does not travel well and ripens very quickly. The idea that there was a connection with Latin apricus, ripe, may have given rise to the ‘p’ in English ‘apricot’, which combines with the French ‘cot’ ending. The fruit is called Aprikose in German and abrikos in Russian. Without a specific time frame to focus on, the history of apricots includes the spread of the tree across Europe.

The apricot thus gives linguists and growers alike trouble. In 1978, the growers of the Roussillon area decided to take it on, and they seem to be winning, at least in the market for fresh fruits. They decided, after a number of miscalculations, that disappointment was the result of growing sophisticated varieties from overdeveloped grafts, poorly adapted to regional soils and climates, and showing too little affinity with the almond, peach, or plum stocks on which they were grown.

In the past, when a faultless appearance was not so essential, brightly coloured, juicy little Bulida apricots were abundant in France from Midsummer to Assumption Day. The Roussillon growers decided that such apricots must be replanted if they hoped to reconquer and, above all, maintain a market, and went ahead with the project.

The Varieties Of Apricots Worldwide

The huge apricots found in the shops in June, weighing up to 70 grams each, are exactly the same whether they come from Spain, Italy, or California. It is floury and pale yellow. At the end of July, the Gros Rouge apricot of Rivesaltes comes on the market. Despite its name, it is neither very red nor very juicy. It is better to buy the Polonais or Bergeron apricots of Provence, a rosy orange in colour, well perfumed and juicy.

By common consent, however, the best of all are the enormous Turkish and Greek apricots, muscat-flavoured and very dark in colour, called malatya or urgub. They are available in exclusive luxury shops, at steep prices, which has boosted demand for these French apricots. Asian grown apricots are mainly destined for home markets, where they are dried, and Middle Eastern grocers’ shops sell them in bulk. They are so sweet that they seem to have been crystallized when they are merely dried. Confectioners must use them. The pale yellow dried apricots of Iran, Australia, and California are cheaper, but still expensive. Their size justifies a price not commensurate with their insipid, rather acidic flavour.

Unfortunately, all dried apricots (none are from France, since French apricots are unsuitable for processing) contain a high level of sulphur dioxide. They have been treated with sulphur as a precaution against insects before being dried in the sun. The label will say that preservative E22 is added. If you were to eat too many, you could get headaches and digestive troubles, and they would certainly be bad for your figure: 100 grams (about 2 Turkish apricots) contain 250 calories, which are not usually necessary additions to the diet.

The Dietetics of Apricots

The writer Fontenelle, a nephew of Corneille and a member of the Royal Society of London and the Académie Française, lived to be 100. He ascribed his longevity to certain precepts passed on by his grandmother. One of these precepts was to eat plenty of apricots, either fresh, dried, or as a preserve. She called it ‘a royal fruit’. This nickname stuck and comes up in texts on the history of apricots.

The golden fruit is indeed good for the intellect, since it is rich in mineral salts, including phosphorus and magnesium. Professor Delbet has published studies showing that apricots can enhance memory function. Indeed, in quite a spectacular manner, it also rapidly increases the red blood corpuscle count.

The apricot is richer than any other fruit in carotene, or provitamin A, which gives it its beautiful orange colour. The carotenoid content is especially high when the fruit is ripe, fresh, and of a dark-coloured variety. 100 grams of apricots contain 2790 IU, almost half the daily requirement for an adult. In other words, it is good for growth (babies seldom eat enough apricots), hastens the formation of scar tissue. Apricots can counter anaemia just as efficiently as calves’ liver. Without any risk that one is also absorbing hormones or sulphamides. The vitamin C it contains (5 to 10 milligrams per 100 grams) provides energy and helps to fight off infections.

It is a surprising fact that more of the vitamin is present in canned apricots made from ripe fruit than in raw fruit picked unripe. When left too long before eating and often kept in a cold storage. Important in the history of apricots, Professor Delbet also points out that apricots contain valuable mineral salts and trace elements, including magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, sodium, sulphur, manganese, and fluoride.