Orange Gold

[Slocketman]

Waited way too long to pick up some more wood, but I stumbled upon a full cord of Osage Orange gold for not much more than regular mixed hardwood!

Feeling very fortunate today, my family will enjoy quite a few very warm, long fires with this.

 

[hedge wood]

Osage Orange is all I will be burning in my Garn this heating season. I have a farm that is loaded with it so the Garn gets a steady diet of it. Enjoy the hedge and have a good holiday season.

 

[Simonkenton]

I would love to try it. We don't have it down here in Dixie.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Great photos.

 

[MEngineer24]

Nice stash of wood!

 

[Tar12]

I would love to try it. We don't have it down here in Dixie.

You would lose your mind and pack up and move north!Its that good! lol

 

[Simonkenton]

Dammit I am ready to move to Yankee Land.

 

[Osage]

Yes hedge is a top shelf wood, but it's not magical. I have burned alot of it and have several cords of it. It does have alot of btu's, but if your not careful you will get a face full of sparks on reloading. I like hedge but have burned more mulberry and get along fine with it. I use hedge when temps drop to 0 deg. and the good ole Kansas wind blows.

 

[Simonkenton]

The closest we have here in the NC mountains is locust. I bought 48 acres up here, 25 years ago, and I had scores of locust trees. I was burning locust quite a bit, along with oak and cherry. Saved the locust for the late night load. Twenty years ago the locust blight hit and killed all my trees.
It is said that locust won't rot; of course that is not true. It rots slowly. Last year brother and I cut up 4 locust trees, and 2 of them were rotten. I have about 2 Nissan truckloads of locust in my woodpile, after that is gone it is Auf Wiedersehen to the locust.

I can still show you, on the shoulder of I26 going in to Asheville, dozens of dead standing locust that died 20 years ago and have not fallen over yet. And 3 or 4 times I have looked up this blight online, and there is no mention of it. The Mystery Unknown Locust Blight.

 

[Tar12]

Yes hedge is a top shelf wood, but it's not magical. I have burned alot of it and have several cords of it. It does have alot of btu's, but if your not careful you will get a face full of sparks on reloading. I like hedge but have burned more mulberry and get along fine with it. I use hedge when temps drop to 0 deg. and the good ole Kansas wind blows.

It indeed is not magical but it sure does outlast everything I have ever put in a stove! Sparks I can deal with for the btu return.

 

[Slocketman]

Osage in the rain :

I'm trying a fire tonight & though it's been seasoned a year since split I think it's probably going to be better after another year as it's been a bit hard to get it going well enough to turn the air down. (sorry no meter for an actual MC%) Would probably help to put some other hardwoods in with it too, this is my first time burning only Osage.

 

[Ericcc]

I can still show you, on the shoulder of I26 going in to Asheville, dozens of dead standing locust that died 20 years ago and have not fallen over yet. And 3 or 4 times I have looked up this blight online, and there is no mention of it. The Mystery Unknown Locust Blight.

Isn't a leaf miner (an insect)?

Osage orange definitely grows in North Carolina, by the way, probably just as well as Ohio, but it wasn't ever widely planted in the South, especially not those parts of the South that were settled earlier as part of the British colonies. It's actually native to the South (Oklahoma/Texas/Arkansas), but it was widely planted in the Midwest in the mid-1800's for hedges (living fences) just before the invention of barbed wire, especially those parts of the Midwest and eastern side of the Great Plains that were getting settled at that time. Lewis and Clark brought seeds back East from their expedition. The largest osage orange tree in the States is apparently a tree that came from one of those seeds and was planted on what was the home place of Patrick Henry (in Virginia) at the time. I know of one osage orange tree that's probably 40-80 years old in the front yard of a house on a highway near me -- I'm also in North Carolina -- so they're around, but they were never planted in the same numbers as in the states between Ohio and Kansas and Iowa.

 

[hedge wood]

The farm that I own that I cut my hedge off of was planted in the 30'S by the WPA work groups. I bought the farm in the late 70's and the old guy that lived south of this farm was in his 90's at the time remembered when the WPA work groups did a lot of work on this farm including cutting a better drive way to the house that was a 1/4 of a mile back in the field. They planted all of these hedge rows of trees back then and no one ever cut any of them down over the years and the hedge, cedars and many other trees took over the farm.

 

[bigdaddy100]

Waited way too long to pick up some more wood, but I stumbled upon a full cord of Osage Orange gold for not much more than regular mixed hardwood!

Feeling very fortunate today, my family will enjoy quite a few very warm, long fires with this.

View attachment 287736 View attachment 287737 View attachment 287738

wow its the best firewood you can get i was told it burns like the fire hell burns long and very hot sparks like fourth of july

 

[Slocketman]

Lots of sparks indeed! They die down after a while though but one does need to be careful not to leave the doors open long.




Thanks for sharing stories everyone, it's neat to hear the history & tips.

 

[bigealta]

Wow that's nonstop. Locust will spark too but not like that.

 

[Slocketman]

That's the most sparks I've been able to get, it's usually less. In that video I'm adding a few smaller splits onto hot coals. Air is wide open with both doors cracked to get things started, it's just before I closed the doors.

But it's unpredictable enough to need some extra attention. I keep thick gloves on when reloading to be able to snatch up any sparks that might pop out before I can get the doors closed.

 

[bigealta]

That's the most sparks I've been able to get, it's usually less. In that video I'm reloading a few smaller splits onto hot coals. Air is wide open with both doors cracked to get things started, it's just before I closed the doors.

But it's unpredictable enough to need some extra attention. I keep thick gloves on when reloading to be able to snatch up any sparks that might pop out before I can get the doors closed.

Ha, had a spark shoot up my shirt sleeve yesterday. thought it was a bug bite till i smelled the cloth burning.

 

[heavy hammer]

The sparks are quite a show the hedge and locust woods are some fierwork makers. I'm sure you like the heat as well.