North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

At 12:34 PM 11/5/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> How actually does one best remove seeds from osage orange? This year we have
> 400 lbs of "oranges" so will be doing quite a bit of work.  Last year we
> froze them, let them "rot" sort of, mushed it all around and came out with
> something more or less useable - but that was only about 50 pounds
> worth..... I have read about letting them ferment - but wonder how long,
> etc. etc.

Pete,
I've seen this somewhere - the 'old-timers' used to put the hedgeapples in 
a barrel, with drainage holes drilled about 2 inches or so from the bottom, 
and leave them out all winter to freeze/thaw and be moistened and bletted 
by Ma Nature.   Then, in spring, they'd plug the drain holes, add water, 
and mash/mix until they had a nice slurry of bletted pulp and seeds.  You 
could then pick through for the seeds, but what they usually did was just 
pour an inch or two of this slurry into a furrow - often along sections 
lines, or wherever they wanted a hedgerow, and allow the seedlings to 
germinate and grow there, as 'thick as fleas on a dog's back'.

Lots of info out there on the 'Net - two good sites with lots of links are:
www.hedgeapple.com
www.osageorange.com


Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY