Apricot :
Apricot with its sweet taste and beautiful color is one of the popular fruits. Its color defers from yellow to orange and gets beautiful red shades from direct sunlight. Apricot has a velvety skin and its kernel inside the core stone is edible. It is relative to peach and plum, apricot has less and shorter hair on the surface than peaches and also is more popular and delicious in dried form.
This delicious round fruit is very popular in many countries. Iran and Turkey are counted as the largest producers but lately, because of Turkey’s price increase, it is not compatible with Iran anymore. Today Iran is one of the best exporters of these products with the most suitable prices.
Benefits of apricot
Generally, all fruits are nutritious, high in water, and have low calories and fats, apricots are not exceptions. They are nutritious and have vitamins such as vitamins A, C, and E, and potassium, and are full of antioxidants.
It doesn’t need to be peeled as it has a thin skin full of fiber. As proven vitamins A, C, and E are good for eye health, so apricots help to maintain eye health. On another aspect, these vitamins help to build collagen and are useful for the skin to keep its strength and fight against wrinkles.
They are a source of polyphenol antioxidants called flavonoids that protect the body against heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, s and other illnesses. Furthermore, apricots are famous for boosting your digestion because of their fiber content. Since they have very low calories and fats, moreover help your digestion apricots are nutrition for weight loss.
How to use dried Apricots
All the mentioned benefits go for fresh and dried apricots. Nowadays there is a weighing issue among children and adults, dried apricots are a good replacement for sugary snacks or candies especially for children. There are many applications for this delicious fruit in both dried and fresh forms, you just need to find your favorite to benefit from this precious fruit. But as this fruit is fresh and could not be always available we focus more on the dried form and below are some tips.
You can use them in different cooking such as chicken and meat, even as an addition to your rice. In granola, you can add some dried apricots to enjoy the sweet taste. Apricots also go very well with salads and yoghurt which adds more benefits to your diet.
There is no need to mention how delicious apricots are in pastries such as cakes and pies, but don’t neglect apricot jam and its delicious touch which it gives to salsa sauce. Keep in mind that for pastries and jams, you can use as dried as well as fresh apricots. It is notable that because they have sweet taste it is believed that they are high in sugar but this is not true and they have even lower sugar than berries.
Hence dried apricots are easy to preserve, buy, and always available are the best alternative for the fresh kind. As dried, it contains vitamins, minerals, potassium, iron, antioxidants and fiber. To be more specific one cup of dried apricot provides your daily need for vitamin A and partly your daily need for iron.
There are many types of apricots from sweet to tart, small to big, and yellow to orange. The definite type might be difficult to the country you live in so the dried version is the best alternative to enjoy the best type of apricot.
Dried or fresh Apricots
There is a conflict between the amounts of health factors of dried fruit or fresh fruit consist of. Some have a false belief that dried fruits are less healthy than original fresh fruit, while others believe dried fruit is counted as a good source of vitamins and a good choice as a snack.
Dried fruit consists of almost no water as a result it is smaller in size when dried. Every fruit and vegetable could be dried but the taste and usage determine the most popular dried fruits. Some examples of the popular dried fruit are raisins, figs, apricots, plums, dates, etc. There is also a variety of dried fruit that is coated with sugar and mainly the lesser sweet fruits when dried are coated with sugar to have a sweeter taste. Such as bananas, apples, and pineapples.
The fact is that all dried fruits contain the same nutritional quality as fresh fruits. In addition, the same amount of dried fruit in comparison to the fresh form, has more fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals. So to compare the nutritious content of the same weight of dried and fresh fruit, we can say that dried fruit contains up to 3.5 times more vitamins, fiber, and minerals.
On the other hand, it is true that dried apricots have more calories than fresh ones but they both are counted as low-calorie fruit and excess utilization of anything might be harmful. So decide according to your everyday calorie usage how much apricots you can consume.
As a result, consuming a specific amount of dried apricots brings many more benefits to your body than fresh variants, besides dried ones, which are easy to preserve and available in any season.
Apricot Kernel
As peach, plum, cherry, and dates, apricot is counted as stone fruit. Inside the hard stone of the apricot, there is a small almond-like kernel. But it might be interesting to know if this kernel is edible or not.
In many countries such as Egypt, people use apricot kernels as a snack. Some manufacturers use this seed in their products such as medicine, cosmetics, and oil. As the kernel contains a high amount of oil also has protein and fiber.
There are some beliefs that apricot kernel can fight cancer since it contains amygdalin. Amygdalin is a toxic chemical, a naturally occurring compound that is poisonous in the body as it converts to cyanide. It was hoped that cyanide would fight cancer tumors, but this is not true. Because amygdalin is converted into cyanide in the stomach this poisonous compound goes through the body and causes harm and in the worst case it can cause death.
So about 50 kernels of apricots could be poisonous and just six to ten fresh raw kernels are recommended.
- We offer you the best quality besides the best price
- Apricots have vitamins A, C, E, and potassium and are full of antioxidants
- Dried apricots are easy to preserve
- All dried fruits contain the same nutritional quality as fresh fruits
- Iran has the best climate for producing excellent-quality apricots
- The best alternative for a healthy snack
Apricot: Iranian apricots are nearly round with a depression at the top where the stem is attached. They have a vertical indentation that starts at the stem and goes down one side. The skin is yellow-orange to pink-orange and feels soft and smooth. Apricots can be similar in appearance to peaches and nectarines, but those fruits usually have a reddish coloring to their skins. Apricots can also be confused with persimmons, but persimmons have shinier skin.
Which City or Province grows: Shahroud + Tabriz + Oroumeiyeh
Apricot tree harvest Season: Summer
Apricot Tree: Apricot trees range in size from 1 to 2.5 meters high.
Apricot Leaves: Apricot leaves are triangular to nearly round in shape and dark green with toothed margins and palmate venation.
3 kind raisin 
