Spain

Apricot Blossom
In An Old Spanish Cottage Garden
Mijas - February 2004
( Málaga Province - Spain)

This Old Spanish Cottage with adjacent building plot or horse paddock is FOR SALE !

travel pics pro - Spain

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Photo © Jack Cox - www.TravelPicsPro.com

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travel pics pro - Spain

Photo © Jack Cox - www.TravelPicsPro.com

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travel pics pro - Spain

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travel pics pro - Spain

Apricot Tress (praecoquum) in Flower

The word apricot (pronounced ape-re-cot), comes from the French abricot (aubercot until the Fifteenth Century) does not have one simple etymology, but rather a combination of several, involving a considerable juxtaposition of ideas. On the one hand, we have Portuguese albricoque, Spanish albaricoque and Italian albicocca, which all stem from the Arabic al barqouq or al birquq, for the Iberian Peninsula owed much to the Arab gardeners of Andalusia in Southern Spain.

The Arabic word means "early-ripe," and itself derives from the Latin praecox or praecoquum malum (in Greek, praecoxon), meaning "early-ripener" and "early-ripening 'apple,'" respectively (see the etymology of "apple"). This was the name given by the Roman legionaries when they first brought the fruit back to Rome, as they were returning from the Near East in the first century.

Being easy to eat, it also was called aperitum, "fruit which opens easily," and there is an association with Greek abros, "delicate," for it does not travel well and ripens very quickly. The idea that there was a connection with Latin apricus, "ripe," may have given rise to the "p" in English "apricot," which combines with the French -cot ending. Incidentally, the fruit is Aprikose to the Germans and abrikos to the Russians, but all these roads lead to Rome, from where the term--and the fruit--first spread throughout Europe.

Apricots are high in Vitamin A and C, with a good amount of potassium. They were well known 4000 years ago in China, where apricots still grow wild in the mountains.
The famous "Golden Apples" of Greek mythology were actually apricots. Italy welcomed the apricot in about 100 BC. But it did not reach England until the end of the 16th century. The Spaniards took the apricot to the New World. The first planting there was in the 18th century in California where the first commercial orchard was in Santa Clara near San Jose.

Apricots belong to the rose family, no wonder when they are ripe, they smell Great! There are as many as ten different varieties. The two most grown commercially being Castlebrite and Patterson.

travel pics pro - Spain

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