Ode To The Osage Orange

     There's monkey brains everywhere.  They're lining the farm field.  They're smashed across the road.  They've seemingly found themselves in every nook and cranny they could find available.  And, before you start believing that we're harboring some genetically modified alien monkeys with green brains up here, rest assured that Pennsylvania Dutch Country is safe.

     They're actually the fruit of the Osage Orange, nicknamed Monkey Brains by the locals due to their brainy appearance.  

     Osage Orange dates back to the days before barbed wire when fencing an area used a lot more help from Mother Nature and a lot less assistance from modern machinery.  Fence rows were made from a variety of things back then: rocks, logs, waddle and daub, and a farmer's favorite, a living fence line.  By planting living fence lines, the plants would grow so incredibly wild and tight-packed that not even a hog could break through them.  Unfortunately for farmers, they would still have needed some maintenance on these fences if animals were around, as the BBC's Edwardian Farm demonstrates in their own hedgerow:

     Otherwise, it was a fairly good plan, and that's where the Osage Orange comes in.  

     A tree with inedible fruit shouldn't be the first thought for a farmstead, unless, it could be made useful in other ways.  An Osage Orange tree growing on its own will form a beautiful round crown; however, in a close-packed hedge row, it will form an impenetrable barrier with thorns so large that they would sometimes injure livestock.  Farmers, in both America and Europe, also found their wood useful for crafting with, including for bows, wagon tongues and wheels, and even fence posts and railroad ties.

     Although thousands of miles of Osage Orange fence lines were planted throughout America, there remains only smatterings in our area today.  Fortunately, there's one along the edge of the road right near our place, and I happily gathered some of the monkey brains.  Studded with cloves and decorated with a ribbon and some cinnamon sticks the Osage Orange fruit  makes a wonderful Christmas decoration that those of Pennsylvania German descendant have been using for some time.  We'll still be waiting a little longer before we put any Christmas decorations out around here though as it's not even Thanksgiving yet!  (Fall is also my favorite season of the year after all, so I don't mind an extended period of fall decor.)  

     What natural decorations do you like to use at Christmas?  

A Sunday Drive

The Sunday Farm in Berks County

Yesterday was one hot Sunday with the sun beating down on anyone around here that wanted to do just about anything outdoors.  So, the husband suggested it was the perfect time to do a roadtrip (in the air conditioned car of course!) and check out hex signs on some of the barns in the Berks County, Pennsylvania countryside.  

  

Dating back to at least the nineteenth century, hex signs are the beautiful geometrical designs that decorate Pennsylvania barns.  A misnomer is they are created by the “Plain Dutch,” which are your more conservative Anabaptist groups such as the Amish and Conservative Mennonites.  Instead, many non-conservative Anabaptists and others are actually their creators.  Regardless of who paints them they take some serious skill and patience to create, and the Greater Reading Visitors Center offers a self-guided Berks County Hex Barn Art Tour that stretches over 40 miles through part of Pennsylvania Dutch Country off of I-78 and Route 222.  It should be noted; however, that their subtitle on the tour is “Get lost in history,” and our odometer reading was over half-a-mile in difference from theirs by the end of the tour (and also their direction at 38.7 miles that tells you how to get back to I-78, should be turn RIGHT onto Route 737S). 

A few of the hex signs along the tour.

I applaud the Greater Reading Visitors Center for making a tour of this quickly vanishing folk art form; however, we quickly noticed that the tour may need a little updating.  Not only were some of the road directions and mileage counts off (and a bridge out), but some of the hex signs on the tour were fading, non-existent as the barns had been resided, or manufactured metal signs screwed to the side of metal barns and wooden buildings.  The metal ones (which were on the very first barn on the tour), in our opinion, are “not real hex signs” as I can buy them in a gift shop along I-78 if I cared to own one.  

James H. Adam Farm in Berks County

Also on the tour are painted murals decorating four of the barns alongside the hex signs on Virginville Road.  

All-in-all it was an interesting tour through the Berks County farmland even with many of the hex signs being of similar design, but they were beautiful none-the-less.  I will give warning to anyone taking the tour that Route 143 was a busier, winding road than expected, especially for a Sunday, and that you might want to look over our changes in the directions (found below) to help you out with some of the things we noticed to be a little off.  

A few changes in the link's directions to help others along: 

5.4 - "Dreibelbis Farm (on left)" was supposed to have hex signs, but we couldn't see any.  If someone does see some, please let us know! 

6.6 - "On left, rear" was supposed to have hex signs, but we couldn't see any from the road we were travelling on, on the tour.  

19.0 - "Dreibelbis covered bridge (on left)" is actually on the right, not the left.  (It also has a metal hex sign on it too)

25.8 - "Sicher Farm (on left)" was almost completely obstructed by the trees.  Perhaps a winter view would allow you to see the hex signs better.

35.1 - "Cross Rt 143 to Stoney Mountain Road."  The road is actually Stoney Run Valley Road, and currently the bridge is out!  The Ontelaunee Farm (at 35.5 miles) is before the bridge and the Wiesner Farm (at 37.3 miles) is after the bridge.  Take the detour and you'll actually see something else that wasn't included on the tour that we found really cool!  

THIS!  How cool is this barn art?  There's also three more white circles with the birds in as well, which are presumably marriages, and the trees are presumably the kids.  It's along Route 737 S (on the right) on the detour around the bridge that's out on Stoney Run Valley Road.  Also, if you happen to make a wrong turn and follow their directions for 38.7 and take Route 737 N, it'll be on your left.  Just make sure to turn around after you see it and go back the other way, or otherwise you'll miss the end.

38.7 - "Turn left onto Rt 737 S" is really a right turn, unless you want to see the above barn art, then by-all-means, turn left!  (The above art will then be on your left-hand side).

I'd love to hear what others think that visit the area and decide to take the tour!  Since I grew up seeing hex signs in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, it's not as "new" to me as it might be to some.