“Even if the world would go to pieces [arguably it already has] I would still plant my apple tree." ~ Martin Luther
There is a story behind this apple tree in our garden...
Apple Trees and I Go Way Back
When I was eight, we moved in next store to my grandparents on 20 acres they had turned into a landscaping nursery. They had a huge garden and an apple orchard that stretched twenty trees deep along a dirt lane. 🍎
The first time I got the wind knocked out of me and thought I was a goner was falling out of one of those apple trees. And one of my favorite memories is our fall trip to the cider mill, all sticky from a full day of picking and packing wooden crates full of apples into the back of my grandpa’s truck. Then coming home with dozens of gallons of cider.
Fast forward to the apple tree that greeted us in the front yard of our first house. The tree stood in the front corner of our little yard, half of it inside the fence and half of it hanging over the fence, tantalizing passers-by with dozens of apples free for the picking. We decided to make it clear that everything outside the fence was there for the taking. One mother and her son came by every weekday morning to grab an apple on their way to school.
So when we moved into this house we decided to continue the tradition, planting an apple tree at each of the southern corners of our garden, half inside the fence and half outside the fence. Last year was the first year we got enough apples for dumplings and a pie, and this year will be even better, with enough to share on both sides of the fence.