An Apricog in the System

The sun beats down on a dozen or so volunteers from food-based nonprofit Food is Free Albuquerque (FIFABQ). It’s a hot day, and there are so many apricots laying on the dusty road one can practically smell them baking in the summer heat. Nearby lay hundreds more of the stone fruit, rotting away or crushed by passing vehicles. Today is one of FIFABQ’s first runs in Santa Fe, and co-founder Erin Garrison hypothesizes they’ll wind up with hundreds of pounds of fruit by the time they’re finished—an eye-openingly regular occurrence for the relatively young organization.

“Harvesting every year really depends,” Garrison tells SFR, “but usually we can get up to 700 pounds from one tree.”

Garrison can eyeball an apricot and know its next step. She considers the fruit’s texture and color to determine if it needs to be instantly cooked and preserved, or if it has a few extra days left to be given out as fresh as possible. 

Read more at the Santa Fe Reporter