Gourd Growing

A couple of weeks ago, we visited my parents in PA. While there I saw my father's efforts at the cultivation of the Calabash plant. The Calabash is one of the earliest domesticated plants in history. But surprisingly instead of being used for food, it's grown to create light weight, biological containers.

Amazingly, my father's gourd plant climbed up our backyard pine tree to the height of about 30 feet and produced 4 large green gourds. The container fruits themselves have to be allowed to dry until their outer surfaces harden into a thick layer of wood.

Each gourd can be trained with stones into the shape of drinking bottles, cups, serving bowls, pitchers, and large pots.