Pick only one

Spooky season conundrum :ghost:

You are cursed by an evil garden gnome and you must choose only one type of fruit you can grow for the rest of your life. What do you choose and why?

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Somehow I feel like the garden gnome is actually a hungry rabbit in disguise.

I think I would pick apples, because there is such variety in taste… Also you can eat them fresh, bake them, make applesauce, juice them, dry them, etc. They are the fruit my family eats the most (multiple per day).

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I’d lean towards apples too. @GrumpyPantsPlants nails the reasons.

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Probably apples, even though they are the least favorite of what I grow. However they are the only fruit that I can eat from August to May; i.e. 10 month of the year.

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Probably apples, though it’s grim giving up everything else. The variety means you can at least pretend you’re not stuck, different apple for every week of the season.

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Figs. I love them fresh and dried. So I could eat them year round. Figs are easier for me to grow than apples. If apples were as easy as figs, maybe it would have been apples for me.

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Persimmons is the easy answer for me. The reason? I really can’t get them unless I grow them. If I find a local tree dropping, I might have two days to pick a few, then coons and deer get the rest.

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For similar reasons I’d pick pawpaws. I can always buy stuff like apples, pears, etc. Black raspberries would be very hard to completely forgo but easily foraged. So yeah for my area, pawpaws.

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I’ve never had a pawpaw. Starting to plan a spot for two behind the house.

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Yeah. Apples. They can taste like a huge range of fruits and other things. Vanilla, caramel, spices, honey.

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Durian. I might as well take advantage of the curse to grow something that would normally be impossible in my climate

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Seeing as I live in Wisconsin, im going to pick oranges, locally grown oranges using gnome power. Otherwise apples of course.

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You specified grow, not eat, was that intentional? :joy: Am I growing this to eat, for the general pleasure of growing something, for the visual beauty of the growing process, for gifting to others, for selling the fruit product as a business? I cannot think of any other things to include in that list.

Years ago I considered a related question that was based solely on taste: what four foods could I subsist on the flavors of for the rest of my life and not get tired of them? Grapes, apples, cheese and bread were my answer.

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@ZumbroBro
Were I to choose Citrus, I could plant an enormous number of cultivars. But the long-term prospects of Citrus greening disease here are not good.

There are some 40 other fruit and nut varieties growing here. I suppose I could focus on the best tasting of them, although most are limited in season. So I am drawn to our Suebelle White Sapote for its long period of production.

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Hmm, wonder if I can get away with growing potatoes. But they are not a fruit. So maybe pears. I think I can beat apples for range of flavor and definitely can have fresh pears 10 months of the year.

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^ pears. So much variety and more reliable than stone fruits in my climate

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Tomatoes, but that is probably not really considered so much in the fruit category as a vegetable.
Apples for their versatility and ease of growing, but being I can still buy fruit, just not grow them apples are out.
Mangoes would be the next pick only if the curse makes whatever I choose grow, grow flawlessly without issues.
Persimmons are top pick if the curse only makes me able to get anything to live except what I choose, because they are super reliable, great tasting, no pest problems, and look great as a yard tree.

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Yep I did mean to specify grow. We can all go to the store and purchase all the common fruits we desire, and yet for some reason we choose to grow our own.

My own answer to the question is apples for their wide range of varieties, their versatility in cooking, but most of all because I really enjoy the process of caring for an apple tree.

I like that hypothetical of living off of 4 foods but I think I would replace grapes with pork for my answer :bacon:

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Persimmon, it’s my favorite fruit in the whole world! Best tasting fruit right next to Medjool Dates (But since I can’t grow dates here) Persimmons it is! Either wise it would be a hard choice between either or.

However the evil garden gnome said nothing about foraging fruits, I can forage for as many american persimmons as I want & as many Black Raspberries & Blueberries as I want. Also if I just happen to scatter fruit tree seeds, it doesn’t count as growing them if the plants do their own thing anyways right? Or if a bird poops out cherry pits where I live & a cherry tree grows that fruits delicious cherries?

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