#Apricot nectar full

Wipe the rims of the jars to make sure there is no residue( if there is, the jars will be hard to open once processed).

#Apricot nectar full

Fill each jar full to the bottom of the neck with the apricot/water mixture.

Line up your canning jars and fill each jar with ½ cup sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

You don't want to push the apricots through once it stops coming through easily - too much puree will cause your nectar to look brownish. Keep pushing the apricots through the sieve until they are no longer glossy and wet looking (puree will stop dropping from the sieve as you stir).

Run the apricot/water mixture through a sieve, pushing the apricots through with a spoon, collecting the puree and liquid in a large bowl.

Let simmer for ½ hour, or until the apricots are super soft and completely broken down. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to medium.

Place apricots and water in a large stock pot.

Cover and bring to a boil while you make the nectar.

Fill a large canning pot ⅔ of the way full with hot water.

Scroll past the recipe for more pictures! Watch for a cake coming soon that uses apricot nectar as well…in a way you wouldn’t expect. The nice thing about having apricot nectar around is that you can use it for other things – apricot syrup for pancakes?! Yes. Or, you can add a little water to it before drinking (it’s a bit thick!). We love to drink our nectar over a glass of ice (let it sit for 10 minutes to get really cold and a little bit thinner). Just make sure that the jars are completely covered with boiling water when you process them. If you use smaller jars, a regular sized stock pot will work. Well, that is if you’re putting it in quart sized jars like I did. You do need to have a very large stock pot to can nectar. Maybe I’ll have to hide it so that it lasts more than a month.

My kids are obsessed (looks like the apricot doesn’t fall far from the tree, ya feel me?). I now have 7 gallon of nectar stashed away in my pantry. Like all canning, it’s a little bit time consuming. I’m weird, remember?) but I do love apricot nectar. I don’t care for apricots when they are eaten plain (it’s a texture thing. Once I realized this, apricot nectar sprang right back into my mind, almost instantly. Judging by the leaves alone, I should have known it was a fruit tree. It also turns out that my junior year of high school botany did not serve me well. Turns out it was an apricot tree, after all. This spring, the tree that sat in the middle of our peach trees and was completely void of flower or fruit the previous year was suddenly full of white blossoms. Until the second spring we spent in our home. It totally left all corners of my memory. As the years have passed and children have taken over my life (and brain cells) I somehow forgot about apricot nectar (in all fairness, they do store it on the bottom shelve of every store I’ve ever been to. When I was a teenager/young adult I would buy the big cans of apricot nectar at the grocery store and pour it over ice as a special treat. It’s simple to make and lasts for months! *This Apricot Nectar is my favorite way to use apricots.