I recently discovered an Osage Orange Tree growing on my property. So I started researching what I could do with this green brain looking fruit.
Turns out, the osage orange tree was used as a natural fence line before barbed wire was invented. When planted close together the limbs and thorns on this tree serve as a way to keep animals in or out. I’ve read some tree lines are still in existence in the west.
Another interesting fact about this tree is the wood doesn’t easily rot. For this reason, farmers used the limbs as fence posts.
Don’t let the name fool you. This fruit doesn’t taste like oranges. In fact, the fruit isn’t edible from what I read. The edible part is the seeds. When roasted, they taste similar to pumpkin seeds. In fact, I like them better! Here’s a simple way I roasted the osage orange seeds. So if you see this inedible fruit, remember you can eat the seeds. My kids loved them.
Ingredients:
Osage orange seeds
Olive oil
Salt
Directions: Heat the pan with olive oil. Pour seeds into the pan and lightly salt. Fry until they are toasted brown.
References: Wikipedia, Mother Earth News
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Kathi at Oak Hill Homestead
Saturday 31st of October 2015
How do you get the seeds out? Those fruit are really hard to cut open and are very dense. We have 2 trees left. My horses absolutely love to eat the fruit when they fall from the trees, and over the last two winters they've stripped the bark off of two more trees and killed them. The wood is supposed to be very good for bows too.
essentialhomestead@gmail.com
Sunday 1st of November 2015
I waited until it was really ripe and cut it open with a knife. Then picked the seeds out by hand.