01/10/2026
OUR FIRST HARVEST AT KILTONGA!
Back in 2021, as we were emerging from the disruption of the Covid pandemic, we installed some apple trees to bring a bit of greenery to the front of the Foundation’s offices. Visitors to Kiltonga will know that with tarmac and concrete abounding in the car park to the side and the front service areas, planting them in
the ground was not an option. We had to install them in very large planter tubs which need to be upgraded periodically
as the trees (slowly) grow. Obviously, Mother Earth can do a far better job than a large plastic tub, but we and the trees persevered.
It was 2023 before we saw our first apple blossoms and it was 2025 before we saw anything even remotely resembling something akin to ‘fruit’. Thus, we were thrilled in spring 2026 when they were awash with blossoms and apples began, at last, appearing and growing as the summer progressed – so much so that the branches of the smaller tree (which is still quite spindly) were so laden with fruit, it broke at the fork with a larger branch. Fortunately, an improvised repair using electrician’s tape saved the day, and the fruit, and the branch!
While our in-house apple experts advise us that the fruit is not quite ready to pick, it will be soon. And any member or visitor calling to the Foundation’s offices in the next couple of weeks will
be very welcome to take one with them. You know the old saying ‘an apple a day …’.
The bounty, if one can call it that, may be small, indeed very small, but it is a start. As Pa Ingalls said of the family’s first meagre crop in De Smet, South Dakota, ‘When I get those few hills of corn cut, husked and stored down cellar in a teacup, we’ll have quite a harvest’!*
* Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter (Puffin Books (Penguin), 1979), p. 29.
We are also delighted to announce that our 2026 mid-year Members' publication - 'The Kiltonga Bugle' is now available: https://online.flipbuilder.com/UlsterHistoricalFoundation/ealt/
