Hedge Apple Market

Someone shared this on another board I'm a member of. I'm not affiliated with or have ever done business with this company, I just thought I would share this for those in the area that might be interested. My back can't even imagine picking up a ton of these things.

Interesting and I'm not interested. One ton......that's a lot of pickin up.

That's 10 to 50 cents per osage orange. I've seen places where you could make decent money on them at those prices.

Keith

What are they use for?

What in the world is a hedgeball

I always heard them called hedge apples. The fruit of the Osage orange tree, nicknamed hedge.
Dennis

I pick up a few every year and scatter them around the house, especially the basement, keeps the spiders out during the winter. Sounds strange but it really works.

An Iowa chemist is extracting the seeds and making a cosmetic oil called pomifera oil. It is sold in the cosmetic industry for 85 dollars a half ounce.

Myth: "Hedge apples" (Osage orange fruit) or horse chestnuts can be used to repel spiders.
Fact: The story that the fruit of the Osage orange tree (also called hedge apple, monkey ball, or spider ball) can repel or ward off spiders turns out to be extremely widespread in Midwestern states, where the trees are common. Details vary, but in general it seems that people put these aromatic fruits around their walls in fall to "keep spiders from coming in." Since house spiders don't actually come in from outside, of course this works just fine, but there is no evidence that spiders are repelled by Osage oranges. They live on the trees and even make webs on the fallen fruit. What's more, spiders seldom show any sign of being able to detect airborne odors!

In some versions of the story, the repellent effect has been transferred from spiders to cockroaches, mosquitoes, chicken mites, or mice. Since squirrels regularly chew through these fruits to get the tasty seeds inside, a rodent repellent effect seems pretty unlikely. A recent study did find some cockroach repellency in a purified extract from the fruit – but not in the whole fruit.

https://www.burkemuseum.org/collect...%20(,where%20the%20trees%20are%20common.

Kids around here gather them by the truck load and toss them on the teacher's lawns at home coming time, while TPing. lol

Hy-Vee, a regional grocery store chain based out of Iowa, usually sells them up here in Sioux Falls in the fall. I have a friend in sw MO and we've talked about in the past running a pick-up load up from his property to have me sell locally. The problem is there seems to be a time disconnect of when say Hy-Vee is selling hedge balls here and when he thinks they are ripe and able to be picked up down in sw MO. Maybe we'll figure it out for next year...

We’ve got hedge balls out the wazoo here but sure seems like a hard way to make $200

so your talking about horse chestnut ??

no, it is osage orange. Otherwise known as Bois D'ark.

They are common in southern Iowa but a rarity in central Iowa.

Most people would pick them up one at a time......makes it easier on the back.
Fox squirrels eat the heck out of them.

I didnt think Iowa had any chemists

I know of three spots with Osage orange trees in the two counties near me. Each patch has only 3 or 4 trees. All three are along the edge of a field or unimproved road. I always assumed they were used for hedge rows along farm fields since that where they seem to be.

I have also seen one other tree in another county. Unusual tree here. We call the fruit "Osage oranges". Tried to cut one in half with my pocket knife. The sap in the fruit is so sticky I couldn't get the glue off my knife blade. Even soap and water struggled to get it off. Turns out native Americans used it for glue.

Seems to me you're looking at collecting 1000-1200 hedge apples to make $200 and then you have to deliver them?

I know where a LOT of them are but I think you're looking at less than $10 per hour, no thanks.

If you had something like a modified golf ball picker and an orchard or two full of themit might be worth while

Picking up hedge apples would make a good job for kids......quick way to make $200. Only other person I know who would do it is a lady in her 80's, who probably has over $1M in CD's in various banks......drives an old beater Chevy S10, but will still walk across the room to pick up a penny. Probably why she has that much money.

Rows of hedge trees dates back to dust bowl days......they were planted in fence rows.....generally around 40 acres tracts......to help with wind erosion. Wood is magical stuff for a lot of uses. Long bows are one. Fence posts are another. A big corner hedge post will outlive the guy who set it. Wood probably has highest btu value of anything around, but if you use it for firewood, and have a long beard, better stand back. Sparks will fly.

Sparks will fly off a chainsaw, too lol. That stuff is hard

I planted a thick row on our property line about 4 years ago. Real thick intertwined branches full of sharp thorns. Hopefully it will keep my neighbors on their side.

A good straight grained tree with a 6 foot+ length log is very valuable for bow wood. It is a lot of work cutting it down, splitting off the staves, and sealing the ends with paint. There is good money to be made though.

Yup.......better cut it green.......once it dries out, it's no fun at all. Can't drive a fence staple in it then either.

When I moved from Iowa to Minnesota, some friends joked that it doubled the average IQ in both states. Took me about a month of living in Minnesota to become concerned that they might be right.

Right now. I am selling unprepared scrap at .04 per pound. 80.00 a ton. 200.00 a ton is good money. It wouldn’t take long to gather a few ton working all day at it. I have areas here in Ohio that are loaded on the fence lines. Would need 25 to 30 ton to be profitable to haul to IA from here. But someone close could make good money. Volume. Think big. Bigger !!!

In the right place with a good silage fork it wouldn't take that long, if your not lazy.

That map is incorrect. Clarke county Alabama is blank ( the triangle shaped one just above Mobile bay. We have a big one on our homeplace there.