Rex Trulove
Good gourd, many people think they have a very good idea of what a gourd is, but they may not be entirely correct. When people think of gourds, they most often think of something like what is shown in the picture; bottle gourds. What they may not know is that this is only one of a huge number of cultivars of gourds.
Gourds have been grown and used for many centuries in Europe and Asia. They’ve been used for such things as vessels for water, as birdhouses, musical instruments, and food. It may come as a surprise that gourds have been used in the Americas for at least as long. In fact, gourds have been found in Aztec archeological digs in Peru that dated from about 13,000 BC. Indeed, most cultivars in the gourd family are actually native to the Americas.
What sometimes confuses people is that the gourd family is known by other names. All cucurbits are gourds. The gourd or cucurbit family is sometimes called the cucumber or squash family. This means that all cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, Luffas (vegetable sponges), and melons are gourds. Bottle gourds, as shown in the picture, originated in Africa, but most species came from South and Central America. Some species are also native to Europe or Asia, too.
Most kinds of gourds/squashes, as well as tomatoes, potatoes, and corn all originated in America.
October is usually the month when pumpkins are in high demand, so it is appropriate to think about gourds since pumpkins are gourds.
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Did you know that all members of the cucumber or squash family were gourds?
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Yes
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No
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Yes, but I didn’t know that most came from the new world
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People use it for storing water in the past.
Sometimes, they still do. Also for carrying water.
Sometimes the value of information is not the information but sharing it!
Great job sharing Rex.
Thank you. I still find it amazing that these fruits have been used for 15,000 years.
dad joke warning
the same ones? Or different ones
dad joke alert off
Depending on how they are prepared, they might taste like the originals. 😀
that would probably squash your taste buds eating 15000-year-old gourd!
We have pumpkin here but not like this one .
We have several kinds of pumpkins here. I haven’t tried growing bottle gourds, but I’v grown a few kinds of pumpkins and squashes.
We do not have pumpkins here, only squash.
In flavor, there isn’t much difference between a pumpkin and a squash and they grow under almost exactly the same conditions. A huge number of pumpkins are grown in China. Still, if squash can be grown, pumpkins probably can be, too.
Yes, I have seen these for sale along with the pumpkins.
They are widely grown in the US, particularly in the south.
I have heard of gourds and forgot how large and interesting looking they are. Do gourds taste more like zucchini or cucumber?
Bottle gourds like those in the picture are less commonly eaten than the are used for other purposes, but they taste more like zucchinis.
I’ve never seen a gourd before. How interesting!
They are grown in most, but not all countries. If you’ve seen a squash or a cucumber or a cantaloupe or a watermelon, though, you’ve seen a gourd.