The story of Granny Smith (yes, she was real!) is not often told. I'm lucky that I was told it as a child. I have since found records that this is a true story.

Mrs Maria Smith was a dear old lady who lived in the mid 1800's. She was widowed and lived on a property halfway between Sydney town and Penrith (which was a separate town, not a suburb like today). Around the 1860's there were many children who lived on the streets and had nowhere to go. And so she would take them in.

Down the back of her property was a mulch heap, where all the refuse was put. One day she took down more to add to the heap when she noticed a little seedling struggling up through the mulch. She nurtured it, and when it grew she saw it was an apple tree. Except these apples did not turn red like the others, but stayed green. The first Granny Smith Apple Tree had been born. It seems the particular chemicals of that mulch heap may have changed the seed enough to create a new species.

After that there are many tales of Granny Smith pointing to her tree, and smiling at the waifs she had rescued, and saying  "Look, it's amazing what can grow out of rubbish."
 

Australia

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