How can these peaches and cherries grow on the same tree? A guy named Sam Van Aken “grafts” trees together, meaning he cuts off one tree’s branch and ties it to a cut in another tree’s trunk. If it works, they grow into one happy tree. Peaches and cherries work because they’re cousins — they’re both stone fruits (they have a pit inside). Sam’s trees can bear up to 40 kinds of fruit, and flowers to match!
Wee ones: If Sam’s tree has flowers in white, pink, purple, orange and magenta, how many colors is that?
Little kids: If you pick fruit to bake a cherry pie, then a peach pie, then a cherry pie, then a peach pie…what should you bake next to keep the pattern? Bonus: How would you count up the tree’s 40 fruits by 10s?
Big kids: What if a tree could grow snacks? If your tree grows potato chips, pretzel sticks, and Cheetos, and you pick 1 snack type each day cycling in that order, how many days until you’ve picked 25 of each snack? Bonus: If it grows 40 snacks and you pick a new snack each day, then after the 40 you start over in the same order, how many full times will you cycle through all snack types in 1 year? (Reminder: A year has 365 days; a leap year has 366.)
Answers:
Wee ones: 5 colors.
Little kids: A cherry pie. Bonus: 10, 20, 30, 40.
Big kids: 75 days. Bonus: 9 full cycles, since that brings you to 360 and you can’t then fit another cycle.
