What the day is about
National Apricot Day falls on January 9, which is a slightly funny time to celebrate a fruit that is at its absolute peak in late spring and early summer. That mismatch is worth leaning into, because January is exactly when you cannot buy a good fresh apricot in most of the country. What you can find is dried apricots, apricot jam, apricot nectar, and a chance to plan for the real season. Like a lot of these days, its exact origin is hard to pin down; it circulates mostly on national-day calendars without a clear founder or founding year, so take it as a friendly nudge rather than an official holiday.
A fruit worth knowing
The apricot is a small stone fruit, a cousin of the peach, plum, and cherry, and it rewards a little attention. A ripe one is soft, faintly floral, and sweet with a tart edge; an unripe one is mealy and disappointing, which is why so many people think they do not like apricots. They mostly have just had bad ones. The kernel inside the pit is used to make amaretto-style flavorings, though it contains compounds you should not eat raw in quantity. The fruit dries beautifully, concentrating its sweetness, which is how most of us encounter it in winter.
An apricot is basically a peach that respects your time — smaller, tidier, and gone before you overthink it.
How to actually enjoy it in January
Since fresh is off the table, January is dried-apricot territory, and this is where a little knowledge pays off. Look for the darker, unsulfured kind if you want deeper flavor, or the bright-orange sulfured ones if you want them soft and jammy. Simmer a handful with a cinnamon stick and they turn into a quick compote for oatmeal or yogurt. Chop them into a grain salad, tuck them beside roast pork or chicken, or just eat them by the handful with some almonds. Apricot jam, meanwhile, is the quiet workhorse of the pantry: it glazes a tart, sweetens a pan sauce, and thins into a brush-on finish for roasted carrots.
Planning for the real thing
The best use of this day might be forward-looking. Mark your calendar for late spring, find out whether a local orchard or farmers market carries apricots, and resolve to buy them ripe and eat them fast, because they do not keep. If you have space and patience, an apricot tree is a genuinely rewarding backyard plant in the right climate. For now, in the dead of winter, let the dried and the jarred stand in, and treat January 9 as the moment you started paying attention.
How to celebrate
- 1Make a quick compote
Simmer a handful of dried apricots with a splash of water and a cinnamon stick until they soften into a loose jam. Spoon it over oatmeal, yogurt, or ice cream. It keeps in the fridge for about a week and tastes like summer in the dead of January.
- 2Buy the good dried kind
Skip the candied bits and look for whole dried apricots, either dark unsulfured for deeper flavor or bright sulfured for softer, jammier ones. Keep a bag in the pantry to snack on with almonds. They are one of the few genuinely good winter fruit options.
- 3Glaze something with apricot jam
Warm a spoonful of apricot jam and brush it over a fruit tart, roasted carrots, or a ham near the end of cooking. The pectin gives a glossy finish and the tartness cuts through richness. It is the easiest way to make a plain dish look finished.
- 4Plan for apricot season
Put a note in your calendar for late spring and find a local orchard or farmers market that carries fresh apricots. Buy them when they are soft and fragrant, and eat them within a day or two. A ripe apricot at its peak is a completely different fruit from the grocery-store version.