Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Amazing Calabash Gourds


One of the gourds we opened and left out to dry shriveled up and turned a beautiful, dark shade of brown because it was burnt from the scorching sun.  It reminded me of the African huts in Zimbabwe.   So we set up an 'almost' african nature table.


A smaller gourd that I painted.   I wanted to make a hole for the birds but I don't have the tools and it was too hard with an ordinary knife - I'll wait for Fabien to return from Miami to help me.



The gourd fruit of the Calabash Tree grow off the trunk.  Their flowers are pollinated by bats.  They are painted and decorated then used as bowls, containers, shakers and made into beautiful lamps.


Beautiful orchids found on the Calabash gourd tree.  It is common to find many varieties of orchids on gourd trees.



Anes, one of our farm helpers from Hiati helping us carry them from the car.  They are very heavy.



The boys enjoyed digging into the slimy, stringy pulp and then they smeared themselves with it!!!   The shells are on the roof drying.


Especially Sania


Some older photos of bottleneck gourds we harvested






4 comments:

  1. It certainly looks like an enjoyable day!
    The gourd you painted is so beautiful and your nature table is lovely.
    Harvesting and creating from the garden is such a rich experience!

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  2. lovely, I remember digging those out, so much to do with those..enjoy!

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  3. Bravo pour la coupe de cheveux de Sasha .J'aime beaucoup

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  4. Hi there, I am in harare,zimbabwe and I am a mixed media artist and work mostly with gourds which are found here in abundance. I am interested in working with you. Onasis

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