FOR the connoisseur of fresh apricots, an all-too-brief season, from mid-June to mid-July, is often full of frustration. Unlike Goldilocks, anyone trying to find the lush, velvety fruits when they are neither too hard nor too soft but just right may have trouble.
It's the familiar yet tiresome story of fruit that is at its best when tree ripened but which rarely comes to market in that condition. Few local growers have apricots to harvest, so they are shipped from California, the source of most apricots, and both time and safe handling preclude picking the fruit at its peak.
