From Apples to Apples

Did you know that there are over 7500 varieties of apples? Why God would create so many varieties of one kind of fruit is rather baffling and...delicious! In early September I went to an orchard for my family's annual apple-picking day and picked enough apples to last us for weeks. In fact I shared some of them in my office area.

Of course I was just as interested if not more so to munch on cider donuts but back to apples...

Oh my, apples galore. As we walked among rows of  well-groomed trees and sampled one apple after another I couldn't help thinking, "Was this how it was with Adam and Eve?" Actually I didn't think that at all. What really grabbed my attention was how each variety of apple was truly different in its flavor, texture and shape. I tried Sansa, Honeycrisp, Cortland and Jona Mac. Sweet. sour, crispy, mellow. And these days we can easily enjoy an apple from Asia or Latin America as we do from Massachusetts or upstate New York.

Beyond the apples, there were dozens and dozens of families of all different backgrounds picking apples side by side, feeding tree goats (you need to see it to believe it), running through the hay play area and jostling for that cider donut fresh and hot from the fryer. Then there's apple cider, apple crisp, apple pie...! From one simple fruit comes forth a cornucopia for our enjoyment.

Next time you enjoy an apple, think of the marvelous diversity embodied in that shiny red (or green or yellow, etc.) orb. Now time to get another apple...

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