Growing up, my family home had two apple trees. One was a Granny Smith apple tree next to our back deck, and the other was a crab apple tree on the side of the garage. The Granny Smith tree was not in a good spot for sun, but we did manage to get two or three apples each year. The crab apple tree had beautiful blossoms in the spring and small hard fruit that was easy to throw in the Fall. They really hurt! My father’s favorite pie was Apple pie. That was the first type of pie I learned how to make. I remember loving the story of Johnny Appleseed, and thinking everyone should have apple trees!
My college (Delaware Valley College) had a huge apple orchard. There was even an apple developed on the campus and named after our college president, the Feldstein apple.
We planted two dwarf Macintosh trees at our house in Fairfield. They did very well. I was very proud to make an apple pie with the apples I had grown myself!
March 2020. Schools are closed. Dennis has a little extra time to plant an apple orchard!
We planted 7 macintosh, 1 honey crisp, 1 crabapple,... 
And an espalier of different varieties!
The tree’s energy (the first year it is planted) must go into producing roots.
I couldn’t resist keeping these two.
Our apple is on the right. We cut it up and ate it! It was very sweet. The Apple on the left was from Blue Jay orchards. It was a bit more tart!