An Apple Tree Story with a SLGC Connection...
Beth Boles
There is a little McIntosh apple tree you should look for, the next time you are walking around the Lower Lake (old Canoe Lake) in Shaker. It is located directly across from the entrance to Leighton Road and is dedicated to Nancy Cutting Young, a past President of SLGC.
Nancy loved to make pies and other baked treats and her favorite cooking apple was a McIntosh apple. So when Nancy died in 2010, a McIntosh apple tree was planted in her memory by family and friends. In the beginning, when the tree was just getting established, it was given a lot of TLC. The trunk was annually wrapped by family members and friends during deer rutting season; it was covered with old bed sheets when there was a hard frost (what a sight!). The little tree was watered as often as possible, and it began to grow into the strong and healthy tree it is now.
This year the little tree brought forth a bountiful harvest of organic McIntosh apples. The deer were happy and so were friends and family who visited the tree. One visitor and dear friend, our own Jane Ellison, who lives on Leighton Road and was Nancy's next door neighbor, gathered a few of the apples and made the most delicious apple sauce. She shared the apple sauce with Nancy's family. Thank you, dear Jane, for your thoughtfulness.
If anyone is wondering how to honor a loved one, plant a tree! The rewards are as bountiful as this season's apples.
Best regards,
Beth Young Boles
