They will be rained on, snowed on, frozen, thawed and frozen again and by the spring thaw they should have started to go nice and mushy. The buckets will be left outside beside the barn for the whole winter. I have filled two big buckets with the strange alien looking oranges. But they have dense hard timber, good for fence posts as the wood does not rot and even further back the Osage Indians used this wood to make their bows. These are very old trees and because of their thorns they are no longer popular. In fact they have many names – Monkey Balls, or Horse Apples among them. So with direction from the Old Codger who I visit twice a week, (everyone needs an old person remember and he is mine) I have gathered the hedge apples. I think I will leave that work for the cats. No-one can tell me if this was actually a useful practice. There is an old wives tale that the actual horse apples repel mice and insects, and there was a time when the apples were lined up around the outside of the house to keep the home pest free. Well, we will see what Daisy says about that.
Horse High, Bull Strong and Hog Tight my Old friends tell me. The tree is very thorny and when pruned to be quite dense it is very effective as a livestock fence. Early settlers planted the Hedge Apple (Osage Orange) which is in the same family as the Mulberry, as hardy hedgerows and the trees can grow to 50 feet high if left unpruned.
We are going to sow a sustainable living fence in the spring.
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