There Used To Be Apricot Orchards Here

I'm a second generation "prune picker" - that's a person who is born and raised in the Santa Clara Valley.  Not so long ago my parents had apricot trees in the backyard.  In fact, every house in our childhood neighborhood had at least 6 Blenheim apricot trees and  some had whole orchards surrounding them.

Our house was the old farmhouse in the development.  It was a funky house - huge because the farmer had had 6 kids with 4 bedrooms downstairs and 2 bedrooms upstairs, with only two bathrooms for the whole house.  We had a  septic system the first 2 years we lived there.  My dad hated that septic system with a passion.  The apricot trees would get into the line at least once a year.

My house in Sunnyvale stands in what used to be an apricot orchard but we don't have an apricot tree in the backyard.  Our neighbors have one but it is old and tired.  Apricots don't last forever.  This year we bought fruit trees for our little orchard - a peach, a plum, a Meyer lemon (more on those later) and yes, an apricot.  It's not a Blenheim, the fruit of my childhood.  The nursery didn't stock those.  But I will get one next year even if I have to special order it off the Internet.