How to select for best flavor:

The riper the better, even to the point of being soft and mushy. Since apricots are usually picked green for shipping, the best ones are often hard to find. Ideally, apricots should be a golden yellow with a red blush and should have a soft velvety feel. Avoid hard, green or shriveled fruit. Ripe apricots are very perishable, so only buy what you will eat. You can let them ripen at home at room temperature and get pretty good results.

Peak of the season:

About 55 percent of the U.S. crop of apricots comes in during June and July, so this is also the time of lowest prices. The best tasting apricots will be available in August, right around the end of the season. During the winter, Chilean apricots are often available.

Nutritional value:

Apricots are a great source of vitamin A. Three apricots will provide nearly half of the recommended daily allowance in a form that is particularly usable by your body. Apricots also contain high amounts of potassium and vitamins C and B1. With all of this nutrition, three apricots contain only about 50 calories and trace elements of fat and sodium. Dried apricots are higher in calories, but are an especially good source of vitamin B1 and iron.

General information:

The apricot is another fruit native to China and very common in the Middle East and North Africa, although in the 1970s, California produced over 40 percent of the world's crop. Some people believe that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was really an apricot. Legend has it that Confucius worked out his philosophy under an apricot tree.

Apollo 13 astronauts were required to eat apricots on their flight to the moon because of their potassium content. NASA doctors believed that potassium was necessary for healthy function of the heart under stress.