Take a Walk Through the Historic Los Altos Apricot Orchard

Artist Cynthia Riordan spends some quiet time in the Los Altos Civic Center Apricot Orchard.  The Orchard is a City Historic Landmark. 

I thought you might enjoy taking a walk at your leisure through the Los Altos Civic Center Apricot Orchard. I researched and wrote it last summer and have led it myself half-a-dozen times. But now I've posted it here so you can call it up on your device and take it yourself. Or you can relax at home and take it as an armchair tour! 

The Coming Year Another Big One for California Apricots!

California Apricots: the Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley, brought me, in 2013, to Stanford University where I spoke at the Stanford Bookstore. My friend Michelle Wahl, widow of LAHS grad Vic Wahl, is a nurse at Stanford Medical Center and stopped by to stay "hi."

We have a new schedule of events and book talks for CALIFORNIA APRICOTS: 2014. The book has been out for nine months and is headed toward its fourth printing! I thought things would be slowing down about now, but that hasn't happened.

Just click "Read More" and scroll down for the upcoming events:

Events and Signings for "California Apricots": Updated Wednesday, August 14!

I signed books at Andy's Orchard July 6, where his apricot tasting and tour attracted  more than 400 people.

We have completed more than a twenty events for CALIFORNIA APRICOTS, and we still have at almost twenty more on tap. We haven't even started bookings for the holiday season yet! I will keep this events list active on my blog, so please check it for any changes and updates.

Click the  button below to find the rest of the list through November!

Wednesday, August 14: 7:30 p.m. Capitola Book Café: author presentation and book signing with special "apricot menu" at the Cafe. 1475 41st Avenue,  Capitola, CA. 95010. 831-462-4415. I am looking forward to this one because it means a trip to the beach!

Friends & Family Fight Explosive Boston Hate

My friend Josh's mother Holly and me in her lovely Washington D.C. home the day I left to take a new job at WESH-TV in Florida.

We heard the news of the terrible attack in Boston just before I headed back to the San Francisco peninsula from my visit to Los Angeles. 

It made me glad that I had gone to LA in the first place. Though I flew down there for business--in this case to help promote my new book--another key reason for the trip was to see old friends. Boston was a good reminder that nothing in life--even life itself--comes with a guarantee.

Apricot Liqueur From Clara Caldwell

Apricot harvest at Gene Bays' orchard near Patterson, California, last summer.  ©Photo by Robin Chapman

What do you do with all your extra dried apricots, when you've tired of using them for healthy, tasty snacks? There is an alternative that several members of my family enjoy. And it comes from a recipe given to our mother by Mrs. Clara Caldwell, the woman who lived up the street from us a long time ago. Mrs. Caldwell passed away many years ago: but she lives on in this lively recipe.

You'll learn more about the Colonel and Mrs. Caldwell in the recipe chapter of my book, California Apricots: the Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley. Meanwhile: 

Blossom Time is Publication Time!

Here's a vintage postcard from a UK company showing an apricot tree blooming in Egypt. The Egyptians call the apricot "mish-mish" and, because the apricot seems to take a long time ripening, they have a saying: "Tomorrow. When there are apricots." It is like saying, "Don't hold your breath!"

© Robin Chapman and The History Press

New Publication Date for

California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley 

by Robin Chapman

On sale April 16, 2013

Lots of things cooking this week with my upcoming book. Andy Mariani of Andy's Orchard in Morgan Hill has asked me to do a booksigning at his "apricot tasting" event on July 6, 2013. I rarely know what I am going to do the day after tomorrow, but I've got this event on my calendar! Andy is from the legendary Santa Clara Valley orchard family, and gave me some great quotes for the book.

Apricot Book Has Glam Cover!

Just wanted you to see the cover of my book, which will be published by the History Press in about six weeks. If you go to Amazon and type in the book's name, you'll be able to pre-order it at a discount.

Things are moving along very quickly at the History Press re my upcoming book on the apricot orchards of Silicon Valley. I have the galleys in my hands now and this is my first glimpse of the cover.

And Now Back to Our Regular Programming ...

An apricot contains just sixteen calories. If you can find them fresh off a tree, they make a wonderful snack.

I have had to take a short break--my first in four years of blogging--from the daily and weekly business of writing for Robin Chapman News, in order to finish my fourth book--my first fully researched, indexed and annotated book of regional history. The manuscript for California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley goes to the publisher next week. After that, I will be able to begin posting again.