I keep telling people how fruits make my life better. Well, I am happy to say that apricot season is finally here!
Apricot season is here! We all know these delightful little orange fruits that are so sweet and tender when ripe and full of juicy goodness.
The tiny little beta-carotene and fiber-rick fruits are available in as fresh produce for a fairly limited amount of time and are usually evidence that summer has finally arrived.
Martha Rose Shulman wrote in the New York Times’ Recipes for Health section stating, Apricots are “worth buying, for the purposes of both taste and nutrition, only when you can find them ripe”.
Shulman continues to describe ways to choose the fruit in your local restaurant or fruit market stating, “You don’t want them so ripe that they bruise as soon as you put them into a bag – they should be slightly firm to the touch, as apricots ripen from the inside out – but if they were picked green they will have little flavor, and they’ll have that mealy texture that describes a bad apricot”.
The tender little fruit has a lot of added nutritional benefits as well including Nutrients that can help protect the heart and eyes, as well as provide the disease-fighting effects of fiber.
Apricots also have a high beta-carotene content, which, makes them important heart health foods because it protects the “good” LDL cholesterol from oxidizing.
Not everyone goes absolutely bonkers for apricots but the sweet, slightly tart and peach-like fruits are great in recipes for those home-cooks and bakers out there.
Shulman includes a variety of recipes on the NY Times website that just make your mouth water with desire including her apricot crumble with oatmeal topping and pan-cooked chicken-scaloppine with spiced roasted apricots.
In this day and age, health is increasingly overpowering the need for comfort foods making apricots an even better choice for consumers.
But, they’re not going to around for long; the usual season for apricots is somewhere between May and August, the symbol of summer.
If your palette is still not craving these orange fruit of the Gods, know that “Data reported in a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology indicates that eating 3 or more servings of fruit per day may lower your risk of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), the primary cause of vision loss in older adults,” wrote World Health Foods.
These delicious little guys should be a part of anyone’s day.
