Horse Apples in the Forest

One recent day, Ross came home to "Dad, we picked horse apples in the forest!" How far did we have to travel from our urban environment to find a forest? Not far! Turns out the tree-lined walking path behind our house is a forest compared to the one dead tree in our backyard!

The "forest"



The unfortunate tree



In the forest, some of the trees drop these:



According to my internet research, the tree is an Osage Orange tree and the "fruit" is a hedgeapple. However, it is also called horse apple (most common in this area), green brains, monkey balls or mock orange. You can order them over the internet. Apparently they are good for repelling insects and spiders. (I'm wondering why you wouldn't go to the local hardware and get a can of spray as opposed to ordering monkey balls over the internet...oh right, better for the environment!) Who knew? If you don't believe me, check out hedgeapple.com. Yup.




Our girl loves to swing. It has nothing to do with horse apples, but the picture was taken on the same outing! Wheeeee!