There was once, somewhere out of space and time, in the Celtic farmland of the Emerald Isle, a farmer living his farmer life, tending to his farm land and caring for his farm family.
The farmer took care that his family was well cared for and that they had what they needed in the stormy winter months. One year the farmer decided that they needed more fruit over the winter, so he went out and bought a few apple trees, which he planted in the most suited place for them creating a small orchard.
The apple trees were a joy to behold. In a few years they grew and soon they started to flourish. That is all, except one. One small one, that seemed to hide in the shadow of its brethren.
The farmer was so drawn to the big, nice growing apple trees that he totally ignored the under performer lurking at the edge of the orchard.
Years passed and the apple trees started to bear fruit. Shiny, large, sweet fruit the farmer and his family enjoyed every autumn and winter.
The sidelined apple tree had gone a bit rogue, without being pruned its branches had become all twisted and tangled, and instead of growing upwards he had grown sideways, seeming to belong now more to the forest than the orchard.
Almost ten years had passed since the farmer had planted his apple trees and this is when, right when the apple trees where in bloom, one of the largest storms in history battered the green isle.
Roofs were blown away, barns demolished, and of course all the flowers of the fruit trees were destroyed.
The farmer was grateful his family was ok, his animals were ok, but in his heart of hearts he was concerned about the upcoming winter months when for sure food will be scarce.
The farmer was right, that winter was one of the hardest they knew. The fires were burning, but the cold still persisted in the small cottages. Food was rationed to make sure the large family survived till spring. The young ones would often ask the farmer for a sweet apple, but sadly there was none to be had. The times were cold and rough.
One day the farmer, with no crops to tend to, went out hunting, in the hopes of finding something to rejoice his family. As he was walking in the woods bordering his farming land, he was struck to see that, the little apple tree he had planted ten years before, had now become a large strong tree with a thick trunk and wide spread branches.
The biggest surprise was that these branches were full of a strange kind of apples, very yellow and hard, with little brown patches on their peel. The farmer tried one of the apples and he was stunned to taste a zingy, firm apple, sweet and sour at the same time. The shock was that the tree was full of them.
The farmer ran back home, he got the wife and the kids and they all got to pick all the wonderful fruit. Once they were done, they took them to the farm, they saved a good deal for them, but, they also made a few parcels and the older children went to the neighboring farms to share the good fortune.
When they came back they were welcomed by the sweet smell of apple pie and each was bearing a gift from the other farmers, which was added to the food provisions of the family.
The farmer was in awe of the little apple tree, not so little now to be fair, that had grown and developed all by itself in the wilderness of the forest and, not only that, it had weathered a storm like no other, a storm that had shaken all the well cared for trees.
The farmer decided to take care of the sturdy apple tree, but without infringing on its own way of doing things as it was obvious it was well able of minding itself.
Every year after that the apple tree gave a good, plentiful crop and all the farmers wanted to have a similar one, and under the guidance of an experienced orchard keeper, seedlings and saplings were shared with the other farms, making it so that in a few good years, the entire area had become renowned for is amazing production of exquisite apples.
Now, sometimes the farmer would go and sit under the apple tree that had started it all and was grateful that despite his own inability to care for it, the little apple could take care of itself and become what it had become.
A legend.