Apricots, Nectarines, & Peaches - (Back To Fruit Info)

• Apricots are known as, "Moons of the Faithful" in China where they originated. Their cultivation spread westward from China to Persia and the Mediterranean, eventually coming to the New World with Spanish settlers.

APRICOT

Usage: Eating fresh, baking, glazes, canning.

Selection: Apricots should be well-formed and fairly firm. Pick apricots that are dark yellow or yellow-orange in color. Apricots are very fragile. They should not be handled roughly or stored at high room temperatures. To ripen apricots, place them in a sealed plastic or paper bag and keep them at room temperature.

Avoid: Avoid apricots that are dull looking, soft, mushy or extremely firm. Bruised areas will be obviously brown.

NECTARINE

Usage: Eaten out of hand & in fruit salads.

Selection: Good-quality nectarines will be fairly large, have smooth, unblemished skin and will be firm but not rock-hard. Ripen nectarines at home for 2 to 3 days at room temperature until they are slightly soft along the seam. Ripe fruit will have a sweet nectarine smell that is stronger when the fruit is at room temperature.

Avoid: Avoid product that is too small, soft, pitted, bruised or has small spots of mold.

PEACHES

Usage:

Selection: Good-quality peaches will be fairly large, firm to slightly soft and have a yellowish or creamy background. A red blush may be present, on some peach varieties to differing degrees, but this is not a true sign of quality. An extremely ripe peach that is at room temperature will also have a sweet peach smell.

Avoid: Avoid product that is extremely small, hard, soft, or that has wrinkled skin at the stem end. Peaches that have a green background were picked immature and will not ripen well.

Information:

Administrative Assistants, Administrative Professionals, Anniversary, Baby Shower, Baby, Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Bath & Body, Bereavement, Birthday, Bridal Shower, Bridal, Canada Day, Candy Bouquet, Chanukkah, Cheese, Chinese New Year, Chocolate, Christmas, Coffee, Congratulations, Cookies, Easter, Father's Day, Flowers, Fourth of July, Fruit, Get Well, Gourmet, Graduation, Halloween, Hanukkah, Independence Day, Kwanzaa, Liquor, Mother's Day, New Home New Years, Purim, Retirement, Secretaries, Snack, Spa, St. Patrick's Day, Sympathy, Tea, Thank You, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Wedding Shower, Wedding, Wine

Gift Baskets:

Gift Baskets Canada: Amherst, Barrie, Bedford, Brandon, Burnaby, Calgary, Campbellton, Charlottetown, Coquitlam, Corner Brook, Dartmouth, Edmonton, Edmundston, Fort McMurray, Fredericton, Grand Falls-Windsor, Halifax, Hamilton, Iqaluit, Kelowna, Kingston, Kirkland, Kitchener, Labrador City, Langley, Laval, Lethbridge, London, Magog, Mississauga, Moncton, Montreal, Moose Jaw, Nelson, Niagara Falls, Oshawa, Ottawa, Prince Albert, Quebec City, Red Deer, Regina, Richmond, Sackville, Saskatoon, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, St. John's, Surrey, Toronto, Trois Rivieres, Truro, Whitehorse, Windsor, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Victoria, Yellowknife

Gift Baskets Europe: Aarhus, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Bern, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Esch-sur-Alzette, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Innsbruck, Lisbon, Luxembourg City, Madrid, Marseille, Oslo, Paris, Porto, Prague, Rome, Sligo, Sofia, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tampere, The Hague, Thessaloniki, Tonsberg, Uppsala, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Zurich

Gift Baskets Middle East: Egypt, Iran, Israel Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Gift Baskets New Zealand: Auckland City, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Lower Hutt, Manukau, North Shore, Tauranga, Waitakere, Wellington City

Gift Baskets Puerto Rico: Adjuntas, Arecibo, Florida, Ponce, San Juan, Santa Isabel

Gift Baskets South Africa: Bisho, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Mmabatho, Nelspruit, Pietermaritzburg, Pietersburg

Gift Baskets Southeast Asia: Bangkok, Beijing, Dhaka, Ha Noi, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Nagano, New Delhi, Okinawa, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo

Gift Baskets United Kingdom: Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Portadown, Swansea

Gift Baskets United States: Akron, Albany, Albuquerque, Allentown, Anaheim, Anchorage, Annapolis, Ann Arbor, Arlington, Atlanta, Atlantic City, Augusta, GA, Augusta, ME, Aurora, Austin, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Bellevue, Billings, Biloxi, Birmingham, Bismarck, Boise, Boston, Bridgeport, Buffalo, Burlington, Cambridge, Camden, Carson City, Casper, Cedar Rapids, Chandler, Charleston, SC, Charleston, WV, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Cherry Hill, Chesapeake, Cheyenne, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Clinton, Columbia, MD, Columbia, SC, Columbus, GA, Columbus, OH, Concord, Dallas, Davenport, Dayton, Dearborn, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Dover, Duluth, Durham, East Orange, Edison, Elizabeth, El Paso, Erie, Eugene, Evanston, Evansville, Everett, Fairbanks, Fairfax, Fargo, Federal Way, Flint, Ft. Collins, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Smith, Ft. Wayne, Frankfort, Ft. Worth, Glendale, Grand Forks, Grand Rapids, Greensboro, Gulfport, Hampton, Harrisburg, Hartford, Helena, Henderson, Honolulu, Houston, Huntsville, Idaho Falls, Independence, Indianapolis, Jackson, Jacksonville, Jefferson City, Jersey City, Juneau, Kansas City, KS, Kansas City, MO, Knoxville, Lafayette, Lakewood, CO, Lakewood, WA, Lansing, Las Vegas, Lewiston, Lexington, Lincoln, Little Rock, Livonia, Los Angeles, Las Cruces, Louisvillle, Lowell, Madison, Manchester, Marietta, Memphis, Mesa, Metairie, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Minot, Missoula, Mobile, Montgomery, Montpelier, Nampa, Naperville, Nashua, Nashville, Newark, New Bedford, New Haven, New Orleans, New York City, Norfolk, Norman, Oakland, Olympia, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Overland Park, Paradise, Paterson, Peoria, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pierre, Pittsburgh, Pocatello, Portland, ME, Portland, OR, Portsmouth, Providence, Quincy, Rapid City, Raleigh, Reno, Richmond, Riverside, Roanoke, Rochester, Rockford, Roswell, Sacramento, St. Louis, St. Paul, St. Petersburg, Salem, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Santa Fe, Savannah, Schaumburg, Scottsdale, Seattle, Shreveport, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Spokane, Springfield, IL, Springfield, MA, Springfield, MO, Sterling Heights, Stockton, Syracuse, Tacoma, Tallahassee, Tampa, Toledo, Topeka, Trenton, Tucson, Tulsa, Tuscaloosa, Virginia Beach, Warren, Washington, Waterbury, Waukegan, Westland, Wichita, Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Worcester, Yonkers

See Also "Informative Sites"