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There was a time when the local grocery store had about two types of coffee to choose from.

It was an easy choice to make, and coffee drinkers rarely had to second guess a decision. Today, thanks to more disposable income, the coffee options are endless and most cities not only have elaborate coffee shops with a dazzling array of options, but they now likely roast their own varieties to offer a unique taste of their own.

When consumers are willing to pay $6 for coffee-flavored sugar water, it tends to open the eyes of an industry to start capitalizing. Grocery stores devote nearly half an aisle to all the different flavor profiles, roasts, genres or beans. The cooler section has even more ready-to-drink options. It鈥檚 gone the way of wines, where labeling offers you a glimpse into the location, the soil type and perhaps even the farmer who grows them.

Specialty food and drinks don鈥檛 stop there; any way you can make something different and possibly add value is now explored across the spectrum of food and drinks.

I considered this as I harvested an apple from our apple tree this week. I wanted to see if the flavors were sweetening on the bright apples. Far from it. The Zestar! variety typically ripens late August to early September. I knew it was early, but the bugs have been digging in, so I figured it might be time to try to make use of them.

Michael Johnson / Agweek

In due time, they and many others will be ready. We get to enjoy an abundance of flavors and hardiness thanks to the work of farmers and researchers who want to see the best kind of apple grow here. Minnesota apples have come a long way since the University of Minnesota鈥檚 apple breeding program began in 1878. Of the 29 varieties to sprout from the program, Honeycrisp, the state apple since 2006, has exploded in popularity. I can vouch that it鈥檚 a family favorite.

But developments like that take time. You can't just pour some special sauce on your apple tree and get new flavors. And then it takes growers a long time to grow the trees to maturity to where they can start eating, selling and sharing.

While coffee shops, ice cream parlors and breweries boast of new flavor options weekly to try to pull in customers for something new, growing new seed varieties takes years. Each growing season you might get closer to what you want, or you may find that a pest or disease likes it so much that the new variety is not worth planting. I learned about how bean growers work to speed up that process by effectively in one year by planting in Puerto Rico and then harvesting and planting again back in the northern Plains. It鈥檚 still a lengthy process.

As my wife was making flower bouquets at the kitchen island to sell at market, my son came to the realization that he could make his own variety of flower if he did some seed selecting, pollinating and planting. It was an 鈥渁ha!鈥� moment for him that we are able to create something new, something perhaps better with a little work and experimenting.

Michael Johnson / Agweek

I think it鈥檚 fascinating how new varieties can come to be and was baffled when my wife told me this spring that broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale and cabbage all came from the same plant species. It made sense as we planted the brassicas together this spring and watched them come up. All were nearly identical until the vegetables started growing in very different ways.

It鈥檚 taken a long time to get to where we are today in producing an abundance of variety. I can鈥檛 thank those people enough who likely had an 鈥渁ha鈥� moment at a young age and devoted the rest of their lives to growing something of value for generations to come. We truly get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.