Apples and Honey For A Sweet New Year, or maybe persimmons

Celebrating the Jewish New Year causes you to do some reflection. Today i stopped to ask myself, were there apples in Biblical times. While walking outside of my daughter's house, I spotted a tree which had fruit, not apples, but what are called Sharon fruit in Israel, persimmons more commonly in the US. Why apples then?
Dr. Google to the rescue:
Dipping the apple in honey on Rosh Hashanah is said to symbolize the desire for a sweet new year. Why an apple? In Bereshit, the book of Genesis, Isaac compares the fragrance of his son, Jacob, to “sadeh shel tappuchim,” a field of apple trees.
Scholars tell us that mystical powers were ascribed to the apple, and people believed it provided good health and personal well-being.
Some attribute the using of an apple to the translation of the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit that caused the expulsion from paradise.
The word honey, or “dvash” in Hebrew, has the same numerical value as the words “Av Harachamim,” Father of Mercy. Jews hope that God will be merciful on Rosh Hashanah as He judges us for our year’s deeds.
Moroccans dip apples in honey and serve cooked quince, which is an apple-like fruit, symbolizing a sweet future. Other Moroccans dip dates in sesame and anise seeds and powdered sugar in addition to dipping apples in honey.
Among some Jews from Egypt, a sweet jelly made of gourds or coconut is used to ensure a sweet year and apples are dipped in sugar water instead of in honey.
Honey is also used by Jews around the world not only for dipping apples but in desserts. Some maintain in the phrase “go you way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,” sweet refers to apples and honey.
Despite that, here is the beauty of the persimmon.