Perfectly Preserved Podcast
Want to learn to safely preserve food at home? Join Master Preservers Anna Cash and Jenny Gomes as they teach you all the ins and outs of canning, from water bath canning, to steam canning, to pressure canning. You’ll learn tested, up-to-date techniques that work for a modern, busy home. Each episode will cover a specific topic relevant to food preservation such as canning equipment, excellent recipe choices for both beginner and intermediate canners, and even other methods of food preservation such as dehydration, fermentation, and freeze drying. Friends and food preservation enthusiasts Anna and Jenny will guide you expertly and share laughs along the way.
Perfectly Preserved Podcast
3 Ways to Preserve Apricots Part 1
Anna and Jenny talk about how to preserve apricots including freezing, canning, acidifying them to retain color with ascorbic acid, and pureeing. Stay tuned for next week
Here’s the link to the articles that we reference: https://ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2020-06/327922.pdf
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Canning Supplies We Recommend
Welcome to the Perfectly Preserved Podcast. I'm your host Jenny Gomes. And I'm Anna Cash. Here we come together to bring you a podcast all about preserving food safely, easily, and dare I say, perfectly. At home. We are master food preservers moms wives, and we love talking about canning. ready to can like a master preserver. Let's get into today's episode.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Welcome back to another episode of The Perfectly Preserved podcast. I am Jenny and I'm here with my co-host, Anna, and we are here to talk all things apricots. And when Anna and I were planning this episode, we got so excited. We have so many things to share. Best practices. We're freezing, canning, pure rain, acidifying, keeping that beautiful golden color. If you love this episode, be sure to tune in next week because we're gonna have an episode devoted specifically to apricot jams and jellies, barbecue sauce, recipe ideas, how to dehydrate, get them gummy soft. Stick around. We have so many great apricot specific tips and tricks for you. And if you haven't left us a review, please take a second and go to that purple OT podcast icon and leave us a review. It really helps the show grow. Anna and I both have resources available to help you on your canning journey.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:have resources
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Go to smart home canning.com. Anna has video courses that are very affordably priced and it'll be like Anna is in your kitchen with you I offer my cookbook The Pressure Canning Cookbook? And it's available anywhere books are available. At an independent bookstore or on Amazon. Anna and I are so grateful that you're here for another season of Perfectly Preserved. Anna is arguably an apricot queen. She has more apricots growing where she lives than I do. It's definitely a quintessential Anna specialty. Anna, tell us all the things about Apricot.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I'm really lucky where I live here in northern Utah, in Ogden, Utah, there are so many apricot trees that go unpicked. I feel a little bit sad that some people don't have that experience, especially canners. I have people that comment on Instagram all across the country that are like, oh, can you ship me some apricots? And I'm like, I love you. But the answer is no. It's so much work. Just today, I dropped off 115 pounds of apricots to our local food bank. This weekend we were picking here in North Ogden and got about six crates
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Wow.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:it feels so good to donate to the food bank. That just tells you how much readily available apricots there are in my area. So I know a little bit about apricots. When we first moved to Ogden in 2009 in our front yard was this gorgeous apricot tree, and it was really my foray into canning. When. You have a really mature apricot tree, it will produce like you cannot believe. apricots are a little bit different. They are a stone fruit and they rarely take a year off like some, other fruit trees. Sometimes they'll have an off year, right? Like apples maybe will have an off year or plums or whatever. But I found apricots are just pretty much full on all the time. Apricots came from China, over 4,000 years ago. Today the United States produces close to 90% of the world's apricots most being grown in California. Here in northern Utah, I live in an area that used to be orchards in North Ogden, there were apricot orchards and there are still some surviving trees from there.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:They really are super beautiful. When I visited Anna I was struck by how many
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:How
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:fruit trees there were, and specifically how many apricot trees. They were just literally in every yard. It seemed like. It seemed like they were just a part of every home. And being from California, I am very attuned to the fact that the state produces a lot of. They produce a lot of everything, but a lot of orchard crops and a lot of apricots. But the fact that they're in nearly every city lot, It seemed really That they were a part of everybody's yard. It was really, really common clearly a stone fruit tree in many yards. It was really neat. When I was in college, I lived in the city of Chico, which is a small city at the very tip top of the Central Valley in California. And while they didn't have quite as many stone fruit, they had a ton of pomegranate trees in people's yards. Some citrus trees, some other fruit trees, it was a little bit reminiscent of that. Like the city lot still retain those fruit trees.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:that, like
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Anna is absolutely an apricot expert and I'm excited to hear from her all the ways to save that golden delicious flavor. If you haven't had a fresh apricot from a tree, the ones that get shipped, just aren't quite as amazing. They're definitely worth, seeking out at your local farmer's market, asking around who's got an apricot tree?'cause they are delicious. The first method of preservation for apricots on our list today is freezing. So, Anna, talk to us about how to freeze apricots correctly.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:so I can tell you what is recommended to freeze apricots correctly. I can also tell you two of the ways that I would not recommend freezing apricots and both of those I will tell you after I tell you the right way to do it. This comes from the USU extension website. We will have links to both of the documents that we will be talking about in the show notes. So the first is a syrup pack, you are going to make a simple syrup, you're gonna take a half a cup of syrup into your freezer bag. It's going to have the addition of three quarters teaspoon ascorbic acid per quart. That helps with keeping your apricots bright orange. If you've ever had. Apricots sit out in the sun or maybe you froze them whole and then you are thawing them out. They have a tendency to go brown really quickly, and so that ascorbic acid really helps keep that beautiful yellow color. You're gonna ladle a half a cup of syrup into freezer containers, or I use freezer bags. Make sure that it's cooled. You don't wanna put any, hot, simple syrup into a plastic bag. Once you put the syrup in there with your apricots, kind of gently shake the fruit around so that that liquid can coat and cover your apricots. You're going to seal, label and freeze those. I do them in freezer bags, but you can also do them in freezer containers. The second way to freeze them is to do a, what's called a sugar pack. So you thoroughly mix two thirds cups sugar and a quarter teaspoon ascorbic acid and set that aside. Pit your fruit. The great thing about apricots is you don't have to peel them like you do peaches. They aren't fuzzy. So you just pit your peeled fruit and you can slice it if you want, but then you sprinkle that sugar mixture over it and gently. Toss the fruit with the sugar and allow that to sit for about 10 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. you'll Pack into freezer containers. The third way is to puree it. So you're gonna put your apricots in your blender with two tablespoons of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of ascorbic acid. I've also used Lemon juice with a good success for the puree, then you're gonna puree that in your food processor or blender. you're gonna wanna leave a half inch head space when you put it into your freezer container. they recommend putting a piece of freezer wrap over the puree to prevent discoloration, and then you seal, label and freeze. So those are the three ways that they recommend. And I'm just gonna share with you the two ways that messed me up. So last year was my first year having an upright freezer and I was trying to pack a ton of apricot puree in there. I just think I did not add enough lemon
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Hmm.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Because when I took it out. It just all turned brown. And it was so sad because you spend all this time picking apricots and pureeing and it's a long process. And then I also did the same this year. I was in Alaska at the start of apricot season, and I was worried that I wasn't gonna be able to get any apricots. So I commissioned my little niece to pick apricots and I would pay her. the apricots and then put them in a bowl with water and lemon juice and then put'em in freezer bags. And what I found as these apricots started to defrost is that all turned brown as well. Not all of it, but it changed the color of the jam that I was making to a darker brown. And when people purchase jams, they wanna see like a bright. Orange color, and these just did not have that. I've gotta figure out some way to fix that. I don't know if it's putting it on the stove while it's frozen and, quickly heating it or, I don't know. I I needed troubleshoot this, but Jenny, have you ever tried doing this with apricots, like freezing them?
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:No, but I think all the times I've made apricot into jam, I have used brown sugar We're gonna mention a, recipe in the next episode, but there's a great recipe we saw that includes plums and that would be another darker colored fruit.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:And that would be
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:If I were in your shoes, it's different because I'm not creating jam to sell the way you are, but I might just lean into the color change and go brown sugar, I think brown sugar and apricot go together really great and they're delicious. I might use those that got frozen this way and try a recipe that has a little bit of darker color to it. Anyway, that's probably what I would do.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I also find that when I make jams and I put in the vanilla bean paste, it turns A little bit brown, but. Yeah. just things that I think about because I just want people to eat with their eyes first, you know?
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Right.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:like a bright apricot.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Right. And that's so interesting you say that about the vanilla because if you were to buy. A commercially prepared preserve with vanilla bean,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:commercially
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:speckles would be visible,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:manila
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I just don't know how you would get the speckles without the brown tone,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I like the flavor
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:yeah, I do too. Like even vanilla ice cream, if you think about it, it's bright white with
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:ice cream,
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:speckles.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:about
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I wonder how they do that. Not critically important,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:true.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:if you are creating jam.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:important, but
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:goal
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:jams,
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:To sell it and you want it to be beautiful, and that's a thing to think about, but
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:If you want
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:we digress.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:that's We are gonna move on to the second part, which is canning.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:apricots are naturally high in acid. They are a fruit that you can preserve in a variety of recipes. Using your water bath or steam canner. We have a ton of beginner friendly episodes, in season one that explain in detail the difference between water bath, canning and steam canning. Both are safe, tested, reliable methods of preservation for high acid recipes, which would be apricot recipes. Water bath, canning. Your apricots is actually pretty simple and they are a fruit that works up pretty easily, like the pits come out pretty easily. I would definitely classify an apricot as a beginner friendly preserve. As Anna mentioned, you don't have to peel them, even though they are a little fuzzy to the touch, they're not Very fuzzy the way peaches are or the way peaches can be.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:very
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:that's really helpful, so you don't have to go through the step of peeling.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:helpful
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:they're not super, they don't naturally have a lot of pectin, which I think I'll let Anna speak to. So we did do some reading on how best to get your jams and jellies to set up. Water bath, canning apricots is also possible for making conserves, which are like a jam and nut.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:which are like a
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:And next episode we'll share some great recipes for apricot conserve. There's lots of great ways that you can water bath can. Actually, Anna maybe this would be a good time for you to mention how you Just canned the apgo and then later made the jam. Is that correct?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:the Yeah, that'll be in our next section under puree.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Great.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:One way that I utilize apricots for later in
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Mm-hmm.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:when I'm canning apricots, I think I've done a hot There's two ways to Can do a hot pack or a raw And that just means that you're letting the apricots sit in your simple syrup and maybe cook a little bit, five, 10 minutes to kind of release some of that air out of the apricot and absorb that But I have one little
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Oh, please.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:grandpa used to make canned apricot halves. He would put a slice of orange in the bottom and it would not only preserve the color, but it also would give it an additional bright flavor,
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:One slice of an orange.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:It's everything that we're talking about, right?
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Oh yeah.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:it's got that citric
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:huh.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:in the orange and it's just a beautiful little touch.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:There you go. There's the gold of the whole episode. A slice of orange at the bottom and then just water bath, scanning the rest. That's such a fantastic idea. I've never heard of that, but that is an easy, accessible, affordable home run win of a way to water bath can.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:home run
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:That's a great idea. for our listeners
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:a great
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:as a refresher a hot pack is
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:as
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:for apricots you would have the fruit in boiling syrup, juice, or water, and then you would lale them into hot jars and then a raw pack would
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:label them
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:filling your warm jars with raw fruit cut side down, then add the hot juice, hot water, or hot syrup.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:add the
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:And I mentioned juice as the canning liquid, you can use fruit juice. I can't say I've ever done this with apricots. Have you done this,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I can't say I've I've never used a fruit juice in, apricot canned apricots. I've always only done simple syrup, but I think it would taste good.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I think the decision is always like, am I gonna spend the money on the juice I think it could be really cool, you know, you, You are spending on the sugar to make the simple syrup. So
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:were spending on sugar.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:In that way, if you're just buying a juga juice, it would be a little bit faster
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:just buying
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:than assembling the sugar and the water to make the simple syrup. But I just, it probably would have to depend for me personally, on the price of the juice and how much you needed to make your syrup or to make your canning liquid.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:make
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:That is definitely, something you'll see in lots of canning literature for water bath canning
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:something you'll
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:is using a fruit syrup,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:bath
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:And a fruit dip for dehydrating, or a liquid
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:a fruit dip
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:to dip your dehydrated
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:a
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:fruit in before you dehydrated it. It's a very common recommendation and
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:dehydrated.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:if you had juice on hand that was a good flavor that was affordable, I would say try that all day long because it can add a really fun flavor add naturally occurring Vitamin C. Be an easy flavor boost. But in terms of just water bath canning, I think there's so many good sets of directions available on cooperative extension websites and the National Center for Home Food Preservation with apricots you could find good directions, on either of those websites for sure.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I would add one thing. If you're doing canned apricots and you're doing a hot pack, sometimes you're leftover with some of that simple syrup that the apricots have It also has a little bit of that apricot flavor. I've taken that simple syrup and added it to club soda. To make a fizzy drink. It's really nice. I've done that with peaches as well. If you add a little bit of lemon or basil or some fresh herb it's so delicious for a summer drink.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Do you rot back your apricots?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:want It depends how firm they
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Hmm.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:So apricots that are very firm, I will hot pack. If they're very soft, I will raw pack because at that point, if I'm cooking them even more, they tend to disintegrate and lose their shape. So just depends on if my are soft or hard.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I was gonna ask do you see when you're canning, let's say halves of apricots.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:you see
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Do they have the same trouble with siphoning that peach halves do
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:have the same trouble?
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Sometimes do?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Yeah, I haven't noticed that as much, but explain to our listeners what is siphoning and why does it happen with peaches?
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Sure.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:never heard of.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Sure. When you're water bath canning, I would say the most notorious
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:you're water
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:would be peach halves.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Something that
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Pull your jars out and it will look very visibly, very obviously, that the contents inside the jar have boiled out
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Content
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:just created this volcanic.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:out
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Kind of mess inside your canning pot. You'll wonder, well, are these lids gonna seal? Sometimes they won't because it has siphon so much, you'll worry about the liquid level inside the jar. It's not the worst problem. But it is certainly perplexing for a new canner. And it is kind of problematic because you end up with not enough liquid sometimes. I think one way a person can avoid having this happen with peaches and apricot haves would, be to not hard boil
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:to
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Some people think, which is a smart mistake to make, but they just turn the pot on as hot as it'll go and have it boiling as hard as they can for the processing time, which is completely unnecessary. A gentle boil is all you need. Boiling any harder doesn't make the temperature go up. There's no reason to do it, and it actually creates that siphoning potential. You don't have to boil like you're on a runaway train. You can just have a gentle boil to avoid that siphoning. What else can you say about siphoning Anna?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I think that's a great point. The one thing that I heard in the Master Food preservers class is that imagine the items in your canning jar. Like they're on a roller coaster, and if you are boiling them really hard and then dropping the temperature, just imagine all of that fruit, coming up or that liquid. And that's when siphoning happens is like these massive temperature fluctuations. So if you can gently bring things up to a boil. And let it sit on the stove, as it cools down. Or maybe have a place on your countertop out of the way of a fan or cool air coming in That's what I've found to be the most to stop siphoning. cause it is common. It's not like it never happens to
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I found that if I just didn't hard boil, I'd eliminated most instances of siphoning. And then the other issue with peach halves for sure, and probably the apricot halves is just air gets caught. if the peach hve or the apricot half is like a canoe upside down in a lake.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:or the
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:that air on the underside, and if you're able to carefully, either with a chopstick or a spoon or some sort of utensil to make sure there's no air underneath those little canoes you want things to keep as calm as possible inside the jar. That's the only other tip that I could offer on the apricot haves and avoiding that siphoning problem.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Okay. Moving on. Let's talk about puree and apricot nectar. Last year I did a ton of apricot puree. That was kind of my lifesaver toward the end of apricot season. I was just exhausted and I was like, I know I wanna make more jam for my Christmas market later in maybe September or October, but I'm just so burned out right now on apricots. Sometimes you just need a break. So I did an apricot puree. I would fill my blender with about eight cups of apricot halves that had been pitted and about a half a cup of lemon juice and blend that all up. Then you process that in your water bath canner or steam canner. It doesn't take very long. Maybe 20 minutes for sea level and up to 35 minutes if you're 6,000 feet or above that was a great way for me to extend the harvest. You can also make puree for smoothies or things like that, you could puree it for baby food. You could do all kinds With this puree.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I think that puree is one of the golden tips of
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I think that of
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:We forget
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:this
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:that we can take a step to buy us time when it comes to food preservation. And that step buys you an indefinite amount of time. You could preserve that in February. You could preserve it into next year. You could just open the jar and eat it as is. You could add a little bit to
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:We
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:make muffins all kinds of baked things. Swap out an egg. You could do a lot with that puree.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Swap
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:have to know what that is gonna be just yet. You could
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:you
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:puree'em up and put'em in court jars, right?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Yep.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Easy guys. You could do a lot or nothing with those jars of puree. You could just eat'em as is, or you could end up turning them into jam. You could use them to make some other recipe that you haven't had time to get all the ingredients for that's saving future you, You could do a lot of things.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:apricot sorbet is so good.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I feel like I'm the only person on earth who doesn't have an appliance that makes ice cream for them,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:earth who doesn't have
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:and
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:appliance.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:just reminding me how delicious that would be. That would be so fun.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:That
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:yeah, there's just a lot you can do in Future. And you can do it in those big court jars
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Thank
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:That'd be a good idea.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Okay, so the last item is nectar. Jenny, do you wanna talk about that? Have you ever made fruit
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I have not done apricot nectar. I've done it for other stone fruits.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:nectar.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:it's just It's just like a jam. Not a jam, but a pulpy juice, I guess the fruit nectar is like, I did it more when my kids were little, when I was really making a lot of things at home. And you can add as little or as. The least amount of sugar as you want, so you can be a healthy mom and add very little sugar and maybe no sugar if you're fruit's sweet enough. But it's just a, thin smoothie, I guess. What can you say about nectar Anna?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Yeah, exactly. I guess the difference between a puree and a nectar is that you're gonna use a food mill for a nectar, so it's gonna
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Hmm.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Peel, and make it
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:More drinkable.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:smoothie without the chunks,
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:more drinkable.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Yeah.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Yeah, I did do it. I've never done it with Apricot, but I have done it with other, I think I did like a stone fruit mix
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:done
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:for my kids
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I did like
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:it's when they're little and they'll just drink and eat whatever you feed them. It was really satisfying and I liked it. I haven't done it in a while, but it's a cool idea and I love food mills. it's a great method. And again, that doesn't take that long.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I have a friend that does apricot nectar and she mixes it with homemade grape juice, which I thought was a crazy combination. I haven't tried it yet,
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:What color is it?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:those two together.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:Is it purple?
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Probably brown.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:It doesn't matter.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:a gross color,
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:No, I'm gonna say it's probably purple. Oh, that sounds nutritious.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:with chunks.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:And honestly, this is not to hate on elderberry at all.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Elder.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:away from this podcast if you love elderberry. But I would argue if you were gonna add. Apricot and grape together, those are very nutritious, high vitamin C fruit. I bet you would get every bit as much of a health benefit
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:from that nectar
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:health
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:as you would from elderberry. I think elder Berry's purported benefits are probably proven to be high in vitamin C and that's the thing we know for sure. Elderberry has had great PR right? If you gave your kids half a cup of that juice every morning, they'd probably be ready to go face public school germs. I'm not a doctor. But, if you're like, oh man, I don't have any elderberry, I think you probably going do just as great of a job feeding your kids the nectar.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:I would have to agree.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:I think that's so helpful. And I think when it comes to apricots, I think the step that everyone skips. Is the acidifying and the anti darkening step. If you've never preserved an apricot, they're gonna turn dark quickly and you should not skip
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:they're
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:acidifying or anti darkening step where you add, either you put them in a bath of lemon juice or you add the ascorbic acid, a crushed vitamin C tablet.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Acid
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:to,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:C
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:as Anna said, the very beginning to acidify them because I think you'll be sadly. Disappointed in the color and the quality, the way it looks. it's too bad because apricots are such a beautiful, vibrant color. If you prevent them from darkening,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:vibrant.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:think of them like an avocado in that way. They go brown pretty quick. You wanna prevent that if you can,
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:frequent.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:but Anna, your tip about puree is golden.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Yeah.
jenny-gomes_1_07-21-2025_111524:That is just so helpful for people to know that they can just blend it up and put it in a court jar and think about it another time.
anna_1_07-21-2025_121524:Well, thanks for joining us on this episode. We look forward to doing part two for apricots next week, so join us for that. And as always, please leave us a like review that helps people find us on the podcast and on YouTube. We are over there as well. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next week for part two.
That's our show. We don't want you to miss an episode, so please be sure to subscribe. If you found this episode helpful and informative, please give our show a rating and review. It only takes a few seconds and it really helps our show grow. Follow us on social media at Smart Home Canning and at the domestic wildflower. Email your preserving questions to Perfectly Preserved podcast@gmail.com and we will do our best to answer your questions on the show. Thanks so much for listening. Stay tuned for our next episode released every week. That's our show. We don't want you to miss an episode, so please be sure to subscribe. If you found this episode helpful and informative, please give our show a rating and review. It only takes a few seconds and it really helps our show grow. Follow us on social media at Smart Home Canning and at the domestic wildflower. Email your preserving questions to Perfectly Preserved podcast@gmail.com and we will do our best to answer your questions on the show. Thanks so much for listening. Stay tuned for our next episode released every week.
