by James Alexander-Sinclair
...[apricots] are the most divine fruit. Either straight off the tree slightly fuzzy, warmed by the sun, or in jams and pies.
There is a village near here called Aynho. It is a pretty village of the sort that you find all over England. Aynho has two main claims to fame: firstly that, after the Battle of Edgehill (during the English Civil War) King Charles I spent the night there and for that one night Aynho became the capital of Royalist England. The second is that many of the houses along the main street have thriving apricot trees trained against their walls*.
Apparently this is a practice that has been going on for hundreds of years. Apricot trees (Prunus ameniaca) grow particularly well there because of the south-western aspect and because, before the invention of the gutter, they got lots of rain - apricots need lots of water to prevent the fruit from splitting.
I mention this because more people should grow apricots. I have fond memories of an old apricot tree in my parents' garden in Wandsworth and my mother-in-law has a particularly good one trained against a wall. They are vigorous trees that get to about 3m but should be pruned like plums: never in the winter or during wet weather - for fear of silverleaf. Find them a sheltered place as they blossom quite early, so are a bit vulnerable to frosts. However, do not be scared off as there are lots of cultivars (some even from Canada) that are pretty tough - I particularly like 'Isabella' or 'Moorpark'.
Any aggravation is well worth it as they are the most divine fruit. Either straight off the tree slightly fuzzy, warmed by the sun or in jams and pies. They are much easier than peaches as they don't get the dreaded leaf curl.
Interestingly, there is a chap called Mark Diacono who has planted a lot of apricots on his farm in Devon (along with a lot of other unexpected things like pecans, olives, persimmons ans Szechuan peppers). He has had mixed success and writes about it very amusingly.
* There is also a ladies' morris dancing group called The Aynho Apricots who are available for fetes and weddings.
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