Featured Puzzle: Apple Tree #1

They say that an apple a day keeps the doctors away. Today, we celebrate another fun internet holiday – Eat a Red Apple Day. The idea is to eat a healthy snack today to offset the sheer abundance of cookies, candies, and other foods we typically indulge in during the holiday season. Yeah, a sweet fruit might not be the best option, but according to the saying, it must be healthy, right?

This is an interesting puzzle I discovered browsing a German puzzle site. As far as I can tell, the inventor entered it once in a puzzle contest, and it doesn’t seem to appear anywhere else. In Apfelbaum (Apple Tree), you must connect all the apples in the tree with the trunk by drawing branches.

• Each apple must be able to trace a single path horizontally and vertically along the branches back to the trunk.
• The starting cell by the trunk is the only cell with 4 exit points.
• Apple cells only have one exit point – a branch endpoint.
• Shaded cells have three exit points – this is where a branch splits.
• Other cells have only two exit points – a branch either passes straight through or turns 90 degrees.
• Branches may never create a closed loop.
• All cells must be used.