Woo! You found one hole, but not this one. Well, I can't get around to the Farmstead anyway.
Guess I'll have to take notes on the sheep to try my guess at the secret, 8 of them are too many to fit into my head.
EDIT: Hmm, Using Delicious Apples probably isn't relevant to the secret, but eating more than one means that they stack. I wonder how far they go. Bought 100+ to figure that out. ... Well, I've got more than 100 stacks of the Apple buff.
I can buy apples in the Castle Town while not using the counter, but Rings need to be bought using it. hmm.
