How The First Honeycrisp Apple I Ever Tasted Changed My Life

I remember the first Honeycrisp apple I ever ate. My wife and I were newly married and somebody in our church told us about this new apple that we should try. It was the largest apple that I had ever seen and cost more than I'd ever paid for a piece of fruit. When we cut it up and I took one bite, my world changed.


I tried eating apples off and on over the years. I remembered eating good apples. If I got an apple at the grocery store, though, like a Red Delicious or a Golden Delicious, it was always soft and gross. The Honeycrisp apple changed that for me.


After that giant, sweet, crunchy fruit, apples were not just apples. I looked for names. All these years later, I still look for new apples and try different ones at the grocery store or the local orchard if I can find one. I can tell you about Cosmic Crisp, Mutsu, Opal, Envy, Wild Twist, Ludacrisp, Winecrisp, Evercrisp, Ashmead’s Kernel, Snapdragon, Sugarbee, Lady Alice, Ruby Lee, and Crimson Crisp. That apple changed more than just apples for me.


As a gardener, I don't just grow tomatoes I grow specific varieties of tomatoes-Golden Cherrywine, Chocolate Cherry, and Sungold. I don't just grow peppers; I grow Candy Cane bell peppers and California Wonder peppers. I don't just grow cucumbers; I grow Green Light F1 cucumbers and National Pickling cucumbers.


Here are some varieties I'm excited about this year. Many of them are growing under lights in our basement right now.

  • Sun Crisp apples
  • Golden Delicious apples (homegrown are so different!)
  • Glohaven peaches
  • Redhaven peaches
  • Green Zebra tomatoes
  • Dolce Fresco basil
  • Purple Opal basil
  • Calypso cilantro
  • Candy Cane mini bell peppers
  • California Wonder bell peppers
  • Spanish Sweet Jumbo yellow onions
  • Red onions
  • Fernleaf Dill
  • Sunrise Bumblebee tomato
  • Pink Bumblebee tomato
  • German pink tomato
  • Kanga-rhu rhubarb
  • Victoria rhubarb
  • Thai hot peppers

I suspect the Lord delights to show off his handiwork every time someone "develops" a new tomato, apple, pepper or flower. Just before they see or taste the first one, I wonder if God is like "watch this!"

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