Yes, I’m starting my blog – again! In preparation for the A-Z Blog Challenge in April, this month on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I’ve decided to do a mini-challenge to myself starting with the basic of all basics – the alphabet. Of course, we’ll still have Mish-mash Monday, Way-back-when Wednesday and Foto Friday, but now the entries will be alphabetized. So, let’s start with A.

I love apples. Applesauce. Apple juice and/or cider. Apple pie, especially with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream. Trouble is, it’s not fresh apple season and the apples right now just don’t taste the same as in the fall when they’re fresh off the trees.

Did you know there are over 7500 different varieties of apples and over 2500 of them are grown in the US? I didn’t know that, but to be honest, I never really thought about it. When I was a little girl, the only apples I knew of were Delicious, MacIntosh and “green” (the only kind worth baking with, according to my mother.) I have no idea what variety they were, but since she regularly whipped up mouth-watering apple pies, I had no reason to doubt her.

Who knew back then that the adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” actually had merit? That apples are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants, especially the peel? Then again, nobody’d ever heard the word antioxidant either until a few years ago.

My taste buds have expanded a little, but even though I don’t mind a Royal Gala, Empire or Spartan now and then, I’m still a red Delicious girl through and through. What about you? Have you had your apple today?