Many older folk will no doubt remember that when our grandmother made apricot jam, they would pop some of the pits into the jam whilst cooking it. The reason was given was that they added more flavour to the jam, nevertheless the children were encouraged to eat these whenever they cam across them in the jam.
I started collecting the apricot kernels from the ground in orchards in the Hawkes Bay/Napier region. I dried them so they would ripen and then cracked them open to remove the pits. This is quite a difficult task as the kernels are quite touch, an awkward shape and rather hard work for a standard nutcracker. The cracking process takes about three hours to achieve a good a pound of pits. I began to make a habit of consuming a few each day on a regular basis. The suggested dose is seven pits a day. More in the main article.