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 by 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 as peach, 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, have low calories and fats, apricots are not exceptions. They are nutritious and have vitamins such as vitamin A, C, E, potassium and full of antioxidants.
It doesn’t need to be peeled as it has a thin skin full of fiber. As proved vitamin A, C and E are good for eyes health, so apricots help to maintain eye’s health. On another aspect of these vitamins help to build collagen and are useful for the skin to keep its strength and fights against wrinkles.
They are source of polyphenol antioxidants called flavonoids that protect the body against heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes 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 lost.
How to use dried Apricots
All the mentioned benefits goes for fresh and dried apricots. Nowadays there is a weighing issue among children and adults, dried apricots are a good replacement of 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 in order to benefits from this precious fruit. But as this fruit as fresh 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 apricot are in pastries such as cakes and pies are, 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 the 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 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 are counted as good source of vitamins and good choice as a snack.
Dried fruit consist of almost no water as the result it is smaller in size when dried. Every fruit and vegetable could be dried but the taste and usage determines the most popular dried fruits. Some example of the popular dried fruit are raisins, figs, apricots, plums, dates and etc. There is also a variety of dried fruit which is coated with sugar and mainly the lesser sweet fruits when dried are coated with sugar in order to have a sweeter taste. Such as bananas, apples and pineapples.
Fact is 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 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 calories fruit and excess utilization of anything might be harmful. So decide according your everyday calorie usage how much apricots you can consume.
As a result, consuming specific amount of dried apricots brings many benefits to your body than fresh variant, beside dried ones 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 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 kernel as a snack. Some manufacturers use this seed in their productions such as medicine, cosmetics and oil. As the kernel contains a high amount of oil also has protein and fiber.
There are some believes that apricot kernel can fight cancer, since it contains amygdalin. Amygdalin is a toxic chemical, naturally occurred compound which is poisonous in the body as it converts to cyanide. It was hoped that cyanide fights the cancer tumors, but it is not true. Because amygdalin is converted into cyanide in the stomach and 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 vitamin A, C, E, 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 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 Grow: Shahroud + Tabriz + Oroumeiyeh
Apricot treeHarvest Season: Summer
Apricot Tree: Apricot trees range in size from 1 to 2.5 meter high.
Apricot Leaves: Apricot leaves are triangular to nearly round in shape and dark green in color with toothed margins and palmate venation.
3 kind raisin 
