Re: Osage Orange Tree/Hedge Apples

[Tara Wheeler <harpy@io.com>]

If you do end up cutting your Osage Orange trees, try to save the bigger
trunks and branches of wood and store it somewhere away from the horses to
dry;  it's damned valuable to bowmakers and natural dyers.

I use it for both (don't try to sell it to me, I have a huge supply already
stashed) and have always been impressed with it as a bowwood and a dyestuff;
as a dyestuff, the chipped wood doesn't require a mordant to be colorfast,
which I believe means that it has a high acid content.

But this is the wood and not the 'apples'.  This is the first time I've
heard of any part of an osage orange tree being a danger to livestock.

I don't have any of it in my pastures, and don't know any neighbors with
your problem, the trees being too scarce in this area to allow much
consumption.