use strict;
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

my $text=<<EOF;
<main>
  <apple name="date" value="1231210"/>
  <apple name="time" value="235959"/>
  <cookies name="date" value="1231210"/>
  <cookies name="time" value="235959"/>
  <banana name="date" value="1231210"/>
  <butter name="date" value="1231210"/>
  <orange>one</orange>
  <milk>one</milk>
  <grape>one</grape>
  <grape>two</grape>
</main>
EOF
my $p1 = new XML::Simple();
my $tree;
my $config = eval {
   $tree= $p1->XMLin($text,
              ,ForceArray => ['banana','apple','orange']  # bingo!!!
              )
};
die("$@\n Ending") if ($@);

print "\$tree " . Dumper(\$tree) . "\n";

exit 0;