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Melissa:

I would be interested in finding out what grocery store you bought those at, and the importer.

Richard Bell


-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thu, 7 May 2009 1:44 pm
Subject: [NAFEX] Apricots from Afghanistan

I was grocery shopping the other day, and found some interesting things: organic dried apricots, whole with pits, and organic apricot kernels, both imported from Afghanistan. Forgive me for being surprised that at least part of Afghanistan has been stable for long enough to allow an orchard to exist.

The apricot kernels are really delicious, similar to almonds but more flavorful. The apricots are a strange color, off-white rather than orange. They're very small, very sweet, lacking tartness, and with only a subtle apricot flavor.

I wonder if the kernels inside the dried fruit are edible too. If they're poisonous, will that be obvious, like they'll taste bitter?

I'm also wondering what would happen if I tried to plant the pits from the fruit, or the shelled kernels. They're not roasted, but I don't know if the drying process killed them, since I'm sure the importer didn't plan for anyone to plant these things. However, I've been surprised at the things I've grown from packaged food, like tamarind from a block of tamarind pulp, which made a very pretty houseplant, and spices. Just for kicks, what would be the best way to try to sprout these, if possible?

Melissa

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