Growing Resources
One of the most useful trees that grows on our place is the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), which here in Kansas is generally called “hedge” or “hedge apple.” The tree, once in high demand by the railroads for its dense, decay-resistant wood, was nearly harvested to extinction to supply crossties. Before that, Native American folks found that its wood made fine bows — and indeed these bows were part of Native American trade activities well before European contact. Fast-forward to westward colonization in what’s now the United States, and you’ll discover that the hedge apple was valued by early European agrarians as a living fence — a closely spaced row of the thorny trees could indeed create a hog-tight fence. Our farm was homesteaded in 1902, and among many other “improvements,”…
