AJAX Comprehension Check

An apple orchard wants to list the varieties of apples they are now picking.  They have a server-side program that delivers the list of apples they are picking now -- as well as those they expect to pick soon and the varieties that are done picking -- formatted in JSON. The structure is:

{
    "apples": {
        "picking_now": [
            "Macoun",
            "Empire",
            "Cortland",
            "McIntosh",
            "Honey Crisp",
            "Gala",
            "Red Delicious"
        ],
        "picking_soon": [
            "Golden Delicious",
            "Northern Spy",
            "Baldwin",
            "Mutsu"
        ],
        "picking_done": [
            "Ginger Gold",
            "Jonamac",
            "Gravenstein"
        ]
    }
}

A web page is created that will make a request for the apple data, format it, and place it on the page.

A screenshot of the page is:

The code of the page is listed below in Question 1.
You can also see a working examples:

• Apples - Live Example
• Apples - JS Fiddle