Apriums

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Apriums are juicy, sweet eating out of hand. An aprium is a hybrid fruit—¾ apricot and ¼ plum.

‘Honey Rich’ is perhaps the most popular aprium variety; its name aptly suggests the fruit’s intensely sweet flavor. Other aprium favorites are ‘Flavor Delight’ and ‘Tasty Rich’.

The aprium’s flavor is often described as intense and complex. Apriums have strong apricot flavor tones—bowing to their predominantly apricot parentage—with a hint of plum. They are sweeter than apricots with higher fructose and complex sugars content and a bit of acidity.

The aprium is bright orange on the outside with just a hint of skin fuzz. Its bright orange flesh is dense and surrounds a stone similar to an apricot’s. The aprium is about the size of a large plum and can easily be mistaken for a very large apricot.

Besides eating apriums out of hand, you can slice and add them to a salad or cereal or yogurt or ice cream. You can use apriums in crisps, cobblers and pies. Add apriums to breads or make them into sauces to be eaten with waffles or pancakes or preserves.

Apriums are available from late spring through late summer, mid-May to September in the northern hemisphere.

Apriums are a relatively new fruit. ‘Honey Rich’ was the first aprium introduced in 1989. The aprium was developed by California fruit hybridizer Floyd Zaiger, who also developed the pluot, a plum apricot hybrid. Other aprium varieties include ‘Autumn Sprite’, ‘Escort’, ‘Flavor Ann’, ‘Late Brittney’, and ‘Poppy Cot’, ‘Wescot’.

Apriums grow on a deciduous tree that grows to about 10 feet tall and require warms springs and summers for harvest. Apriums require other apriums or apricots for pollination.

Choose. Select apriums that are plump and firm with a consistent skin color. Avoid apriums that are green or that are overly soft or have broken or blemished skins. Apriums have delicate skins and will tend to discolor with handling.

Store. Apriums will keep in the crisper section of the refrigerator for up to two days. Keep away apriums away from bananas which emit ethylene gas that can hasten the ripening process of the aprium.