Autumn is the best time to see those warty, wrinkly looking fruits called Osage oranges, and this year, I have dozens of them growing at my farm.
Have you ever heard of an Osage orange? The Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, is actually not an orange at all, and is more commonly known as a hedge-apple, horse-apple, or mock-orange. Each one is about four to five inches in diameter and filled with a dense cluster of hundreds of smaller fruits - some say it even resembles the many lobes of a brain. For the most part, the Osage orange is considered inedible because of its texture and taste, but they're very interesting and fun to grow.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I have beautiful healthy Osage orange trees along three sides of my North Maple Paddock surrounding the run-in field and shed, not far from my tennis court. Here they are now as the leaves start to fall.
Before the leaves turn color, these trees are bold green. Properly maintained, these trees make a lovely natural hedge and fence and can grow up to 60 feet tall.
In winter, the trees must be pruned regularly to keep them in bounds. Without pruning, Osage orange trees grow in dense unruly thickets as multi-stemmed shrubs.
This is what they look like all pruned. We prune these Osage orange trees every couple of years.
Yesterday, the Osage orange trees were standing out in their autumn yellow. Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1800s, thousands of miles of hedge were constructed by planting young Osage Orange trees closely together. The goal was to grow them “horse high, bull strong and hog tight.” Farmers wanted them to be tall enough that a horse would not jump it, stout enough that a bull would not push it, and woven so tightly that a hog could not find its way through.
And they grow very fast for small deciduous trees – the shoots from a single year can grow up to three to six feet long. I planted many of the Osage trees at the farm about five years ago and they’re thriving.
The wood of the Osage orange tree is extremely hard and durable. On older trunks the bark is orange-brown and furrowed. The heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is very dense and is prized for tool handles, treenails, and fence posts.
The leaves are three to five inches long and about three-inches wide. They are thick, firm, dark green and pale green in spring and summer and then yellow in fall. There is also a line down the center of each leaf, with lines forming upside-down V-shapes extending from the center line to the edge of the leaf.
Here is a closer look at the yellow autumn leaves – so bright.
On this side of the paddock closest to my tennis court, the trees are in the process of turning. Osage oranges should be grown in full sun on well-drained soil. This tough, native plant can withstand almost anything when established – heat, cold, wind, drought, poor soil, ice storms, and rot.
Osage orange branches are armed with stout, straight spines growing from the leaf axils.
On this tree, one can see the many, many fruits on almost every branch. Osage Orange is actually a cousin to the mulberry tree.
Here’s a closer view of the fruits on the tree – this is the most prolific year ever for the Osage orange at my farm.
The Osage orange is dioecious meaning that there are both female and male trees; only female trees produce fruit. So far, we have one female tree laden with these warty looking fruits.
The name of the tree comes from the Osage tribe, which lived near the home range of the tree and could smell the orange-like aroma of the fruit after it was ripe.
The fruits are strong – they often persist on the tree after the leaves have fallen off.
Upon close inspection, the Osage orange is large, round, hard, and wrinkled or bumpy in texture.
Cut in half, the fruit exposes a pithy core surrounded by up to 200 small seeds that are much sought-after by squirrels. It is also filled with a sticky latex sap that some say repels insects.
By late fall, many fruits drop to the ground. Although these fruits are not edible to humans, they are not toxic to humans or other animals.
And looking past the Osage orange hedge into the pasture, one can see these handsome boys – Friesians Rinze, Bond, Hylke, Geert, and the Fell pony, Banchunch, grazing away. Do you have Osage orange trees where you live?
The landscape looks so mysterious shrouded in thick fog.
Do you get a lot of fog where you live? My Bedford, New York farm is in close proximity to a reservoir, where early patches of fog are quite common. Fog is essentially made up of condensed water droplets - a result of the air being cooled to the point where it can no longer hold all the water vapor it contains. It can be thin or thick - sometimes so thick it obscures the road and other objects ahead making it difficult for driving or even walking. One day last week, I woke up to a very dense fog, which covered the area for several hours.
It was a great opportunity to capture some photos of this atmospheric phenomenon, enjoy.
It’s hard to see where this road turns. This is the carriage road leading to my home – my tall stand of bald cypress trees is on the left and my long and winding pergola is on the right. In the distance, there are many trees still showing off their fall colors, but heavy fog blocks them all.
This is my allée of pin oaks. These tall majestic trees look bewildering in the fog. At the end is a carriage road intersection, but the thick fog makes it impossible to see.
On this foggy morning it was even difficult to see trees up close. These are two of my American beech trees, still holding tight to their leaves.
This view through the woodland is also very foggy – only the green and yellow foliage of the tree on the left stands out. Fog can form in two ways: either by cooling the air to its dew point or by evaporation and mixing – this happens often when the earth radiates heat at night or in the early morning.
Fog happens when it is very humid. There has to be a lot of water vapor in the air for fog to form. This is one of the most popular vantage points at the farm – the foot of the carriage road leading to the woodlands and my hayfields.
And don’t confuse fog and mist. Fog is denser than mist. This means fog contains more water molecules in the same amount of space. Fog cuts visibility down to six-tenths of a mile while mist can reduce visibility to about one to 1.2 miles.
In between the trees and the fenced-in paddocks, one can barely see the giant dark green white pines in the distance – but they’re there.
Even with the dense fog, my outdoor grounds crew keeps busy with all the autumn leaf blowing. It is hard to keep up with it – there are so many leaves to blow this time of year.
Some of the ginkgo trees have already lost their leaves but many tend to lose all their leaves at the same time. As the weather gets colder, the petioles get what’s called scars to protect the tree from disease after the leaves fall. After the hard frost sweeps down the east coast, this ginkgo, and others at the farm, will drop its leaves to the ground leaving a gorgeous carpet of color below.
This is the view through this grove of dawn redwoods, Metasequoia. These are so pretty in fall. They have feathery, fine-textured needles that are approximately a half-inch long. And look at its bark. The bark of the dawn redwood becomes deeply fissured as the tree matures.
This photo shows the thick fog just past the weeping branches of the willow.
Here’s more fog seen from the fence of my run-in horse paddock. The thicker the fog, the longer it takes to dissipate. This fog lasted until mid to late morning.
This view is in the back hayfield looking at the trees – one can barely see their outline.
At the upper edge of my back hayfield was a family of wild turkeys walking single file across the grass. They seemed un-phased by the foggy conditions.
At the far end of the back hayfield is my giant sycamore tree, the symbol of my farm. This tree is among the largest of the trees on the property.
This is a view looking down a section of my Linden Tree Allée – one of two at the farm. At the end is the carriage road to my home – hard to see, but it’s there.
Do you know what’s ahead in this photo? This image was taken from my Boxwood Allée looking toward my stable at the end.
This view is from my Boxwood Allée looking at my new living maze – look long enough and see the outline of the trees in the distance. Do you know… the foggiest place in the world is Grand Banks, off the island of Newfoundland, Canada? The cold Labrador current from the north and the warm Gulf Stream current from the east create just the right conditions for thick fog to form almost every day of the year.
Here’s a look across a pasture to another section of the Linden Tree Allée. This entire allée runs from the old corn crib all the way down to the vegetable garden.
The sun tried hard to shine through the clouds. All the fog was gone by afternoon, when the skies were blue and the temperatures hit nearly 74-degrees Fahrenheit. Today is also expected to be unseasonably warm, and then tomorrow, autumn weather returns with temperatures expected to drop to the 50s.
Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon continues to provide a great meal-kit delivery service that’s full of delicious recipes and helpful cooking tips.
Last week, we hosted a "Friendsgiving" event to highlight our Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon Thanksgiving menu sides and desserts. Lifestyle editors, influencers, and members of the press gathered in the test kitchen of our New York City headquarters to join us. I showed everyone how to make one of my favorite autumn cocktails - the apple cider bourbon sour. Guests also participated in a charcuterie board making activity using lots of delicious cured meats, crackers, fresh and dried fruits, nuts, and an assortment of cheeses from Murray's on beautiful cutting boards by Khem Studios, one of our American Made Makers on Martha.com. We served sweet and savory bites from Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon, Martha's Chard by 19Crimes and a variety of Fever Tree drinks. It was a wonderful time for all, and a great way to kick-off the busy holiday season.
Here are some photos.
At the entrance to the test kitchen was a stack of Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon boxes. Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon always delivers the ingredients and the recipes in well-marked, well-packaged boxes.
Around the center island, we displayed recipe cards featuring Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon Thanksgiving sides and desserts.
The middle work station was decorated with pumpkins and gourds and dressed with all the ingredients for our special charcuterie board making activity.
Trays were filled with specialty food items for the boards. A charcuterie board is an appetizer typically served on a wooden board or stone slab, either eaten straight from the board itself or portioned onto flatware. It features a selection of preserved foods, such as cured meats, cheeses and crackers.
There were also bowls of olives and cornichons, or tiny pickles. In some places they’re referred to as gherkins.
We provided an assortment of cheeses from the famous Murray’s artisanal cheese and specialty foods retailer and wholesaler in New York City. The cheese selections included Barn First Creamery Quinby, Stichelton, Murray’s Cave Aged Reserved Greensward, Gruyère, and Alpage Moléson.
The event was scheduled for 4pm – everyone arrived right on time.
A photo station was set up in one corner for those wanting to pose with fun hand signs. Here are Geanine (@geaninecilenti) and Brianne (@strollerinthecity).
And here’s Inga (@ingatylam) with a hand sign of me.
This group photo includes Alexa (@alexamjdotcom), Adeola (@theadeolacrown), Allison, Tiffany, Tasheena (@simplytasheena), and Morgan (@nomastehungry).
Here’s a nice snapshot of some of the Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon team – Kevin Chen, Sarah Crowder, Rachel Perlmutter, and Molly Krueger.
And here’s one of Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon’s Eliza Winograd, Theo Kaloudis, and Jennifer Aaronson.
Some of the hors d’oeuvres passed around included these Turkey Meatballs with Cranberry Glaze – one of the appetizers featured on the Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon menus for Thanksgiving – everyone loved them.
For beverages, we offered my 19Crimes Martha’s Chard and an assortment of Fever Tree drinks – club soda, ginger ale, sparkling lime & yuzu, and sparkling Sicilian lemonade.
In this area, Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon desserts, also available as part of the meal menu options for Thanksgiving. Among them, Pink Lady Apple Crisp with Oats & Warm Spices, Cranberry Buttermilk Chess Pie, Pecan Pie with Maple, Caramel & Brown Butter,
and Pumpkin French Toast Bake.
Everything was set up for my demo. I showed everyone how to make my apple cider bourbon sours. I filled a pitcher with eight-ounces of bourbon and 16-ounces of apple cider. Then I used a citrus juicer to squeeze the juice of one lemon. The serving glasses were pre-rimmed with brown sugar. After each cocktail was poured, it was garnished with a thin apple slice.
I also offered several tips during my demo, including this one – use a frozen ball of apple cider in place of ice, so the drink doesn’t get watered down as the ice melts. I keep the apple slices in a bowl of lemon juice nearby, so they don’t brown while the drinks are being prepared.
At each charcuterie board station was a beautiful cutting board from Khem Studios, an American Made maker featured on Martha.com. These are Walnut Mega Whale Bone Cutting Boards – handmade using locally sourced, kiln-dried hardwoods.
It was so nice to see everyone enjoying their projects. Making them, and then eating from them.
Here’s a photo of influencers Stephanie (@adventuresofchefanie), Jen (@indulgenteats), Jessica (@cheatdayeats), and Rachel (@thecarboholic).
And here I am with influencers Taylor (@taylorjphillips) and Jeff (@jeffodonnell). It was a fun time had by all. Please visit the Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon page and find out how you can get our delicious meal kits including our flavorful sides and desserts for Thanksgiving. It’s such a wonderful and easy way to ensure you and your family can enjoy tasty and nutritious meals now and for the holidays.
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