Abbreviated Instructions
- Find cache.
- Sign log.
- Take "seed" (these look like tiny soda bottles).
- Hide "seed." (Start here)
- Contact me and send me a link to your new cache. (Click Here)
Why apples?!
Consider the humble apple. This lowly and mundane fruit is seldom elevated to the level of reverence. I say, NO MORE! The apple is scientifically fascinating, culturally significant, beautiful, and downright tasty. Plus, it's my favorite fruit.
The apple is a ubiquitous symbol in many cultures, including American pop culture. Consider the following phrases:
- As American as apple pie
- One bad apple spoils bushel
- The apple of my eye
- The big apple
- Road apple
- Comparing apples and oranges
- An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
- An apple never falls far from the tree.
- Don't upset the apple cart.
- Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
...not to mention references in Christianity, Disney and one major technology company.
Apple Reproduction
We have grown accustomed to a handful of eating apple varieties (the nine most common varieties grown in Washington state): Red and Golden Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Cripps Pink, and Cameo. In some markets, we're lucky enough to get access to greater variety, but not nearly the bizarre mix of fruits I'd love to see.
Apples are heterozygous, which means they don't "breed true." Plant a Red Delicious seed and a tree will grow that produces apples that nothing like Red Delicious. Most "wild" apples will taste very much like crab apples (a different, but related, species) and not worth eating. The varieties you buy from the store, farm stand, or pick from you back yard were starts grafted onto rootstock from a single tree!
The Seeds - Planting Your Tree
Consider that the tree that you plant will be entirely unique. You took a seed from a tree, but will be producing a new variety, as you plant your cache. Flex your creative muscles! Make the hide unique, put some thought into the perfect apple and describe it perfectly in your cache listing, take a great picture of an apple in your kitchen and use that in your cache listing, write a poem... whatever you do, make it different. Apples should be about variety.
The seed you took is a 2-liter bottle "preform." These magical little vials are nearly indestructible and the caps should keep even our Northwest weather at bay. To plant the seed, just hide it (abiding by Groundspeak's guidelines) and publish it. After it's published, if you drop a note with the GC code, I'll include a list of all the caches in the Pomological Passion series on this listing.
Creative Commons License: Attribution (hernan.seoane), Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works
image at top of listing:
Creative Commons License: Attribution (beta karel), Non-Commercial, No Derivative WorksNotes
This cache was placed within the local employer (and land owner's) guidelines, but please respect the following:
- Please do not park in the nearby lot without authorization. If you are a visitor, register with the receptionist. Note that it may be easier to park in the lot adjacent the gas station.
- Do not disturb the vegetation. This cache was placed out of the CO's fascination with apple trees. It'd be a shame to harm these ones.
- This land is part of an open campus and visitors are allowed, however this is private property and visitors may be asked to leave at any time for any reason.
- As the sign in the gallery states, "traverse at your own risk." The owner takes no responsibility for your safety.
- There is no rule #6.
- If the cache is out of seeds, drop me a note and let me know.
Seedlings
This is a list of caches grown from these seeds: