Horticulturalist Peter Gideon grew the first Wealthy apple tree in 1868. Gideon sent the family’s last dollars to an apple grower in Bangor, Maine, and got a bushel of apple seeds in return. Just one of these seeds, crossed with Gideon’s Siberian crab apple, produced the apple that Gideon later named the Wealthy apple, after his wife, Wealthy Gideon. The Wealthy apple tree was the earliest apple to thrive in the Minnesota climate. Pale yellow fruit splashed and striped with red. Ripens to all-over scarlet for fresh eating; used weeks earlier for pies, sauces and preserves. Flesh is sprightly, vinous, distinctive flavor with a hint of strawberry.