Hooray! Trees are brimming with summer stone fruits. There are peaches from the south, nectarines and apricots filling fruit stands, and plums and pluots in almost every color of the rainbow. Now is the time for eating fresh fruit off the trees, canning winter jams, and baking summer crumbles, crisps, and pies.

We have had heaping baskets of apricots this year to share with friends and strangers, and served up abundant dessert for deer, skunks, squirrels, and a host of other woodland life as fruit falls from the trees. In a heady summer sugar high, we are eating apricot crisp morning, noon, and night. In this crisp, we opted to turn our apricots into a jam and then pile on a toasty oat, nut, and cinnamon-brown sugar topping for baking.

Apricot crisp eaten warm from the oven, served room temp, or cold from the fridge, pleases in all its forms. A little Strauss organic vanilla ice cream on top of your warm crisp does not disappoint. Happy days are here. Bon appétit!

Ingredients
Apricot Jam
20-25 fresh apricots
juice of large fresh lemon
sprinkle of light brown sugar
whisper of sea salt

Crisp
1/4-1/2 cup pecans
1/4-1/3 cup walnuts
2/3 cup whole oats
2/3 cup flour
3/4 light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbs cold butter (we use Miyukos vegan butter)

Recipe
Slice the fresh apricots in half and remove the pits. Cut in quarters and add to medium sized pot over medium to low heat. Squeeze the juice of a large lemon over the apricots. As the apricots start to break down taste for level of sweet to tart balance and add a bit of sugar to achieve the balance you desire. We like our apricot jam fairly tart to contrast with the crisp on top. Add just a tiny bit of sea salt to bring up the flavor and sweetness of the apricots. Continue to cook down until your desired consistency. We are making ours pretty jammy with little to no apricot pieces remaining.

For the topping, chop walnuts and pecans into chunky pieces. Toast the nuts in a pan over low heat with the oats. When smelling toasty add the warm oats and-nuts to the flour in a large bowl. Mix with a fork until the everything cooled. Add salt, cinnamon and sugar and combine ingredients. Cut six tablespoons of cold butter into small pieces and combine with the dry ingredients using your hands until the crumble topping takes form and the butter is incorporated.

Butter an approximate  6" x 9" baking dish. Fill the bottom with the apricot jam. Cover evenly with the topping. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the jam is bubbling into the crisp topping. Serve warm or room temperature. Top with vanilla ice cream, if you desire. Most importantly, enjoy!