North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 09:00 PM 05/22/2001 -0400, Gianni wrote:
> Purrrty woods. Never
> thoughthow really beautiful any apple wood is really.
>  Is the purple a fluke like variageteds in
> citrus?
I suspect not a fluke, so much as indication
of pigmented crab somewhere in its ancestry.  Several of the
red-fleshed selections I have growing in my orchard(Winter Red Flesh,
Almata, Scarlet Surprise) have red/purple-tinged foliage, red/pink
blossoms, and red/purple pigmented wood.  I know Almata and WRF have
a crab parent.

> No kidding, OO is
> considered noxious? 
Around here it is, or at least by
all my friends & acquaintances who are still farming.
Those thorns are hell on tractor & truck tires, and no one is going
to depend on an OO hedge to keep cattle & horses contained - the
legal profession would have a heyday with you if you let your livestock
run free like that.  Gotta have a real fence.
Other than cutting poles for use as fence posts, they have minimal
commercial value.

 On the other hand, is any of the fruit
edible? 
Not to my knowledge.  While I'm a N.A. Fruit Explorer, I'm
not adventurous enough to try eating one of those big fibrous,
latex-filled 'brain'fruits.  I'll stick to its close relatives, the
figs, mulberries and Che fruit.
We have  had discussions on Cudrania(Che fruit, Chinese Che,
Mandarin melon berry, etc.) on the list in the past - you might check the
archives, or maybe Hector Black or others will recap their experiences
with it.

> Archery craftsman
> you say. Woo woo. Thanks! 
> Had no idea the wood was prized for bows. Or
> posts. Or the remarkable property of the wood. Or the 
> beauty.
> Can't wait to get some stock to work with to
> see it, sounds quite beautiful.
I took a minute to do
a Metacrawler
(www.go2net.com)
search on 'Osage orange' - quite a bit of info out there on the 'Net,
including sites with instructions for building an OO bow, places where
you can purchase OO staves & billets, etc. - one of them is, as one
might expect,
www.osageorange.com.
I've been a frustrated amateur flint-knapper from time to time, and have
a few articles on bow-making & handling OO wood for that purpose, but
it looks like most of that info is now readily available on the
'Net.

Additionally, I've seen folks take the fruits, slice them on a bandsaw,
dry the slices and use them in a number of 'craft-y' applications. 
They're quite unusual and handsome, when shellacked, etc.

Lucky Pittman

USDA Zone 6

Hopkinsville, KY

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