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I vaguely remember this story, and am very curious as to what it is as nobody I have asked seems to recognise it. Here is what I remember:

• There is a field of apple trees with a giant in them.


• A man visits the local princess and falls asleep, she sews a ring of white stones into his hair and packs him a bag.


• In the bag is some cheese.


• When he goes to see the giant (at nighttime) it is dark and he says "I am so strong I can squeeze water from a stone".


• He squeezes the cheese and whey runs out, the giant thinks it is water from a stone.


• [NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENS TO THE GIANT OR THE MAN FROM HERE]


• The princess has a baby but doesn't know (or doesn't reveal) who the father is.


• The king is angry and gets a fairy in to come and help.


• The fairy puts a lemon in the baby's hand and says only the father will be able to remove it.


• The king gets all the men in the land to have a go and the guy with stones in his hair removes it.

I'm guessing it all ends happily!

Some of this is probably wrong and there is lots missing but I'm hoping somebody will recognise it!

What you have is a mishmash of fairy tales.

"Squeezing water from a stone" is from "The Brave Little Tailor"

The giant, rinding the little man so bold, began to be somewhat more respectful, and said, "Very well, we shall soon see who is to be master." So he took up a large stone into his hand, and squeezed it till water dropped from it. "Do that," said he, "if you have a mind to be thought a strong man." "Is that all?" said the tailor; "I will soon do as much": so he put his hand into his wallet, pulled out of it the cheese (which was rather new), and squeezed it till the whey ran out. "What do you say now, Mr Giant? my squeeze was a better one than yours." Then the giant, not seeing that it was only a cheese, did not know what to say for himself, though he could hardly believe his eyes. At last he took up a stone, and threw it up so high that it went almost out of sight. "Now then, little pigmy, do that if you can." "Very good," said the other; "your throw was not a very bad one, but after all your stone fell to the ground: I will throw something that shall not fall at all." "That you can't do," said the giant. But the tailor took his old hen out of the wallet, and threw her up in the air; and she, pleased enough to be set free, flew away out of sight. "Now, comrade," said he, "what do you say to that?" "I say you are a clever hand," said the giant; "but we will now try how you can work."

The bit with the lemon is "Hans Dumb"

There was a king who lived happily with his daughter, his only child. Quite suddenly the princess had a baby, but no one knew who the father was. For some time the king was beside himself. Finally he ordered the princess to take the child to the church. A lemon would be placed in his hand, and whoever he should give it to would be the child's father and the princess's husband. This happened, but only fine people were admitted into the church. However, in the town there was a small, crooked, hunchbacked lad who was not very smart and who was therefore known as Hans Dumb. He mingled with the others and slipped into the church without being seen. When the child reached out with the lemon, it was to Hans Dumb!

My guess is that you had a compendium of Grimm Brothers tales, and have mixed the details together.

I wonder if you're conflating more than one story here. The part about squeezing water out of a stone sounds like it comes directly from "The Brave Little Tailor", a Brothers Grimm story. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

A tailor is preparing to eat some jam, but when flies settle on it, he kills seven of them with one blow of his hand. He makes a belt describing the deed, reading "Seven at One Blow". Inspired, he sets out into the world to seek his fortune. The tailor meets a giant who assumes that "Seven at One Blow" refers to seven men. The giant challenges the tailor. When the giant squeezes water from a boulder, the tailor squeezes milk, or whey, from cheese. The giant throws a rock far into the air, and it eventually lands. The tailor counters the feat by tossing a bird that flies away into the sky; the giant believes the small bird is a "rock" which is thrown so far that it never lands.

But the rest of your description doesn't really fit this story. Maybe you read several Grimm tales and remember bits from all of them?

This could be from a compilation of fairy tales. Parts of it (the bit about the cheese and squeezing water from a stone as a challenge to/from the giant) comes from The Brave Little Tailor

An Excerpt:

The tailor meets a giant who assumes that "Seven at One Blow" refers to seven men. The giant challenges the tailor. When the giant squeezes water from a boulder, the tailor squeezes milk, or whey, from cheese. The giant throws a rock far into the air, and it eventually lands. The tailor counters the feat by tossing a bird that flies away into the sky; the giant believes the small bird is a "rock" which is thrown so far that it never lands. Later, the giant asks the tailor to help him carry a tree. The tailor directs the giant to carry the trunk, while the tailor will carry the branches. Instead, the tailor climbs on, so the giant carries him as well, but it appears as if the tailor is supporting the branches.

Impressed, the giant brings the tailor to the giant's home, where other giants live as well. During the night, the giant attempts to kill the tailor by bashing the bed. However, the tailor, having found the bed too large, had slept in the corner. Upon returning and seeing the tailor alive, the other giants flee in fear of the small man.

I think it also relates to "The Selfish Giant" tale by Oscar Wilde.

The giant jumped out of his bed and looked out of the window, but what did he see?

He saw the most beautiful sight; a few children had come in through a small hole in the gardens wall.

The children were on every tree, the trees were happy that they covered themselves with flowers.

The grass was happy and so were the flowers, each one of them was waiting for the kids to come back and here they were laughing with glee at the sight of innocent children playing around the garden. The birds tweeted, as they had never done before.

However, in a corner of the garden, there was a little boy, who could not reach the branches of a tree.

The tree was still covered in snow and frost and hail was still roaring around it. The tree bent its branches to help the boy climb up, but to no avail. The child was too tiny to do so himself.

The giant felt guilty about his selfish behavior, and was very sorry for what he had done. I should have let the children play in my garden, he thought to himself. The giant was indeed very sorry and he decided to help the small boy.