Korean farmer grows first-ever square apple

Japan gets credit for producing the square watermelon in the 1980s but Lee Chong, a self-taught Korean farmer, gets the blue ribbon for devising the very first cubic apple. It took him five years to perfect his square apple -- grown in plastic containers attached to branches of apple trees -- but he's done it.

Fruit may be one of nature's perfect foods -- it's delicious, good for you, and portable -- but for markets with limited shelf space, the irregular packaging of some fruit items can be problematic. Enter the square apple. Presto -- it fits on shelves in a space-optimizing manner.

OK, so there's a not a huge market for Chong's $7 a-pop apple at the moment. But this apple may soon take off in Korea. It'll make for a great gift, says Chong, who believes parents of college kids will gobble up the idea. Korean parents will do anything for their children, he reports -- and definitely if their endeavors are education-oriented.

While this apple will make an appearance in China, there are currently no plans for expansion into the U.S. market.