Kindergartner’s seedling leads to pies, bars, sauce

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Thanks to one tiny little seed planted 13 years ago, Doris Allgood of Sartell was busy in her kitchen this fall making at least a dozen apple pies – not to mention countless batches of apple crisp, apple bars and apple sauce.

The tree that produced all of the apples was planted 13 years ago by Allgood’s grandson, Brendon Jones. There were so many apples on the tree this fall that its branches sagged to the ground. Allgood and her daughter, Linda Jones (Brandon’s mother), picked at least 25 five-gallon buckets of apples from the tree.

One day 13 years ago at Sartell’s Pine Meadow Elementary School, kindergartner Brendon and other students were each given an apple by their teacher, Mrs. Monahan. After Brendon ate the apple, he planted one of its seeds in a pot. Later, when a seedling appeared, he planted that in his grandparents’ garden. And there, it grew and grew. And grew. The tree is now at least 15 feet tall.

Doris and Linda feel a rush of nostalgia when they’d pluck apples from the tree and when they’d bake with them. Memories of little Brendon and his apple seedling return.

“We give lots of apples away every year,” Linda said. “We eat some right off the tree, including Brendon when he’s home. We also freeze some apple pieces. And I myself make apple pies, too. That’s because I learned to make them from the best – my mother.”

Brendon, 19, is now a second-year student at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, studying entrepreneurial management and non-profit management. He has two brothers – Aaron, who lives in Hopkins; and Ryan, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Jones family, Linda and Rick and their children, moved to Sartell from the state of Virginia just before Brendon started kindergarten. They had family in this area, including Linda’s parents, Bill and Doris. Bill has since passed on, as has Rick, who died tragically too young of pancreatic cancer.

Linda lives with her mother. When they look out a back window, there stands Brendon’s apple tree – bare now. But they know, with a rush of nostalgia, that come next spring it will bloom again with fragrant blossoms, followed months later by a bountiful harvest.