ApriCute™
The luscious season of summer fruits in Armenia begins with June, the month of apricots. Every year, the country bursts with trees loaded with the biggest, juiciest, and most flavorful apricots in the world.
Apricots are the fruit of Armenia. Even its scientific name, Prunus Armeniaca, or Armenian prunes, honors that fact. Recently, apricot cores excavated from the ancient Armenian village of Garni support the theory that Armenians have been cultivating apricots for over 3,000 years.
While in season, every single Armenian table is loaded with plates of the golden fruit. Yet, Armenians simply cannot spend the rest of the year without consuming apricots processed into other food and drinks. Here’s how we make sure to eat apricots all around the year.
The origin of apricot is known to be in Armenia during ancient times, and has been cultivated there for so long that it is often thought to have originated there. An archaeological excavation at Garni in Armenia found apricot seeds in a Chalcolithic-era site. Its scientific name Prunus armeniaca (Armenian plum) derives from that assumption. For example, the Belgian arborist Baron de Poerderlé, writing in the 1770s, asserted, "Cet arbre tire son nom de l'Arménie, province d'Asie, d'où il est originaire et d'où il fut porté en Europe. ("TSIRAN” name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was brought to Europe.
The scientific name armeniaca was first used by Gaspard Bauhin in his Pinax Theatri Botanici (page 442), referring to the species as Mala armeniaca "Armenian apple". It is sometimes stated that this came from Pliny the Elder, but it was not used by Pliny. Linnaeus took up Bauhin's epithet in the first edition of his Species Plantarum in 1753. The name apricot is probably derived from a tree mentioned as praecocia by Pliny. Pliny says "We give the name of apples (mala) ... to peaches (persica) and pomegranates (granata)." Later in the same section he states "The Asiatic peach ripens at the end of autumn, though an early variety (praecocia) ripens in summer – these were discovered within the last thirty years".