Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 176 of my contest. If you’re new to the contest and would like to enter, please see the site FAQ on the left sidebar for instructions.

THE FIRST HUNT:

A little tricky for Week 1, but nature must winnow the pack on her own cruel timetable. 351 hunter-gatherers found an APPLE as our fruit of the month, suggested by the first words of the five theme entries:

I KNEW THAT (or “i KNEW THAT,” to mimic the company’s lowercase i)
MAC ‘N’ CHEESE (the famous Mac computers)
SAFARI SHIRT (Safari is Apple’s web browser)
STEVE YOUNG (referencing either of Apple’s two co-founders, Steve Wozniak or…)
JOB’S TEARS (referencing Apple’s recently-deceased CEO, Steve Jobs)

He was indeed young and there were tears. Ask Dana Hahn, who writes:

iSad.

While Leo Stein mentions that:

This crossword puzzle was solved on a Mac.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 351 correct entries received, is William Bernhardt of Midwest City, Okla. William has selected as his prize an autographed copy of Brain Games.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Our Hunt continues with a tribe of 351! This week’s contest answer is a four-letter vegetable. IMPORTANT NOTE: We’re using the everyday, expansive definition of “vegetable” this week, so don’t think too technically along that front. If you think something might be reasonably considered a vegetable, it is one for our purposes. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer vegetable in the subject line of your e-mail.

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite either solve on the applet below or download the free software here, then join the Google Group (1,578 members now!) here. To solve with friends at Team Crossword, click here.

Hunt well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.