November 09, 2009

osage oranges!


(karin and friends... you asked about the homemade theodore roosevelt game... i put snaps up on my twisted education blog and explained how i did it... click here: teddy roosevelt game!)


osage oranges. driving home from our homeschool co-op on friday, my big blue's spotted several osage orange trees. they're pretty rare around this part of michigan. oh! but i love them. i love the fragrant orange smell of these fruits! eating them is not recommended. don't even try it. i put the trailblazer in reverse and backed up (country road) no traffic. then, i trudged down into a ditch and picked several of these up! knowing, they'd make a great november centerpiece.



ironic. the trees were in the same city as where my mom and aunts grew up. right across from the very school (which is now my church) that my mom and aunts attended. the very block in which my cousins and i used to play. so, today.... i surprised my very cool cousin cathy and packaged up a couple of osage oranges, with a note telling her where they came from. she is a hard working ob/gyn and believe me... these will make her day! they will mean more to her then anything.
if you're interested in learning more about the osage orange trees click here. there's some pretty interesting info.

4 comments:

laurie -magpie ethel said...

My mom and I did the same thing on a country road in Kansas a few years ago. We brought them home in our suitcase to Oregon. I am going to send her the link on the trees- thanks!

Lisa said...

I saw some the other day just a mile or two from my house. I didn't stop and get any, but maybe I will sometime this week. I've always found them fascinating!

Anonymous said...

We call those horse apples. We didn't have these in the area of Texas where I grew up, but my husband has fond, fun boy memories of things he and his brothers used to do with Horse apples. I'm sure that with a group of boys, you can imagine what kinds of "fun" (a.k.a. trouble)they could have gotten into with horse apples! :-)
Teresa in Texas

jamie said...

Thanks for the info! I have seen these around a lot on our land, especially in the fall, and wondered what they were.