Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [NAFEX] Angelcot white fleshed apricots

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: markl <markl@nytec.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Angelcot white fleshed apricots
  • Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 14:42:33 -0500 (EST)

from NY Times magazine Dec 25, 2004
Miracle Grow
by William Grimes (a NAFEX member?)

Every plant breeder has a dream. For Ross Sanborn, a longtime farm adviser at
the University of California, it was the perfect apricot. Sanborn spent
decades developing a white apricot he called an Angelcot, a velvet-skinned,
ovoid fruit with pale yellow skin and white, juicy, intensely sweet flesh.

In 1976, a friend serving as a farm adviser in Iran sent him a package of
white-apricot seeds, as well as some seeds from Morocco. Sanborn planted
them, and the apricots that resulted were a revelation. Sanborn then grafted
the best plants onto trees at a nearby farm, and one thing led to another. In
the 1980's, he bought a ranch in Brentwood to continue his research. Along
with apricots, he grew a dozen varieties of cherries, hazelnuts, chestnuts,
peaches, nectarines, grapes and what he described as ''oddball'' figs. A
cherry he helped develop, the Brooks, is now one of the leading early-growth
sweet cherries produced in California. In 1996, the California Cherry Growers
and Industries Foundation named him Cherry Man of the Year.

At the time of his death at 84, Sanborn was still tinkering with the
Angelcot, trying to develop greater hardiness so it could ship across country
without bruising and an eye-catching blush on the skin. He gave its various
cultivars, all sold under the Angelcot brand name, fanciful names like
Heavenly, Saintly and Pearly Gates. Sanborn set his sights very high. The
Angelcot was intended to be divine, the fruit of the gods. He came very
close.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page