Editor’s note: Apricot season is upon us and it’s time for some pickin’. Every year, around June, villagers in Armenia get together to collect the juicy fruit for summer’s harvest. Often owners of the land, these people dedicate two weeks out of the year to picking, collecting and boxing while using the rest to grow and nurture the best product they can. To them, this is their life line; a year of effort and two weeks of intense labor to earn their living for the whole year. The photographs below feature a family collecting apricots on their own field near Arevshat village, in the Ararat province of Armenia. Here’s hoping the fruits of their labor are bountiful and just as delicious as they look in the pictures.
Too bad there are no pictures of what I remember as ‘real’ Armenian apricots: reddish, orange-colored areas over deep yellow background.
A unique hue. What is called Ծիրանագույն.
The ones in the pics are a little too pale for me. Maybe it’s the variety.
btw: our tricolor should be properly called Կարմիր+Կապույտ+Ծիրանագույն, because that was the unique color for the ‘orange’ band.
the scientific name is ‘Prunus armeniaca’ (“Armenian plum”).
Apricot is widely thought to have first originated/cultivated in the Armenian Highlands, however there are other theories as to where it appeared first, e.g India, China.
I believe you are referring to the smaller apricots. these are the white apricots – they still have the small golden ones