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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Apricots from Afghanistan

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  • From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Apricots from Afghanistan
  • Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 09:49:06 -0700 (PDT)

This was at a great store, Patel Brothers, in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC. The importer is Diamond (USA) Inc. 718 938 0345. The 718 means the phone number is in Queens or Brooklyn, NYC. Email diamondusa03 at hotmail dot com.

A 1-pound bad of organic fruit or nuts for $5.99 retail is a pretty good deal, although the package doesn't say who's certifying its organic claim. Also, as with many imported foods, the nutritional information on the package is just random numbers. I'm curious about the supply chain that brought these apricots from Afghanistan to here, but not enough to bother them with an email.

Googling Afghanistan apricot reveals articles like this:
www.sdc.org.af/ressources/resource_en_167768.pdf
Which are interesting. Apparently, after apricots are picked for the fresh market, then they're sorted by grade. Then a highly-paid specialist packs all the different grades in the same box, taking care to put the nice ones on top and hide the bad ones underneath. Then they're shipped, paying various bribes along the way, and then they're unpacked and have to be sorted again to get rid of the bad ones from the center of the box.

Oh, and to the person who has photos of fruit trees from a trip tp the Stans: I'm sure many of us would like to see those. Do you have them online somewhere?

I really should be in my garden hauling rocks right now, but it's hot.

Melissa

--- On Thu, 5/7/09, jazzo874@aol.com <jazzo874@aol.com> wrote:

From: jazzo874@aol.com <jazzo874@aol.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Apricots from Afghanistan
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Thursday, May 7, 2009, 9:18 PM

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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