The Gourd Report
Vol 1. - Drying Gourds

Another way to help determine the dryness is a small postal scale that will weigh in grams. You can easily check a gourd every 4-6 hours, and as long as the weight is dropping, there is still moisture present. The progress of weight loss will begin to slow down, and eventually will remain unchanged, at which point you know the moisture is gone.

The Gourd Report
Vol 1. - Drying Gourds

FROM THE VINE TO THE CRAFTING TABLE IN 3 DAYS:

Is this possible? People wait for MONTHS to get their gourds to the crafting table. Yes, it is very possible, in fact, as we were working on the experiments and documenting this book, we took some fresh green gourds, and were crafting them the next day, but we’ll get to that next. However, this process does require gourds that will be used as bowls, lidded boxes, or something that you are going to cut open.

Same as the previous section, with one exception, once the shell has turned tan, which in most cases takes one to two days, the gourd can now be cut open. Using our own experience as an example, we make trinket boxes out of bottle gourds, which the first cut we make is to cut the gourd in half. As soon as the entire shell has a tan or brownish appearance, (tapping on the shell you can tell the shell has cured), I take my gourd to the band saw and cut it open. You must be careful though, there can be a lot of mush on the inside of the gourd, as it has not yet dried out.

Using a spoon, or some type of scooping/scraping tool, (we use spoon shaped ceramic clay tools), and you will want a bucket or something to scoop the innards into, (they can be quite slimy and not always odor free at this point), scoop out all the loose seeds and pulp. Inside the gourd along with the seeds is a membrane like substance that is attached rather firmly to the navel of the gourd, in most cases when it is wet like this, it is difficult to grip and tear loose, so it may require several attempts at cutting it with the scraping tool, but you should be able to get it out. Once you have the bulk of the matter out, use your scraping tool to get most of what is at tached to the inside walls of the gourd, don’t try to scrape everything out, the whole purpose is to get rid of the bulk that takes so long to dry. Once you have the shell of the gourd pretty well done, you can take it to the sink to rinse off the brownish or mushy stuff, and anything that may have run down the outside of the gourd, so it doesn’t stain the finish. Once it is all clean, pop it back in the oven, in less than a days time at 175 - 200 degrees, it should be dry, the remaining insides will be crispy, and yes, it is ready to craft.

The Gourd Report
Vol 1. - Drying Gourds

A FEW THEORY’S:

Let me interject one of my theories here about the puckering of gourd shells. The white foamy stuff on the inside of a gourd, if allowed to dry fully, on some types of gourds appears to be very similar to Styrofoam. It is a spongy matter, and like a sponge, as it dries it pulls or shrinks. On the inside surface, where this pulp is actually attached to the shell, this shrinking can have a very strong effect on the shell. My first theory was the shriveling of a gourd had to do largely with the actual spongy stuff on the inside of the gourd drying and shrinking, and while this appears to have some effect, we’ve learned from our next experiment, that even with the removal of this pulpy matter, the shell can still shrivel and pucker.

FROM THE VINE TO THE CRAFTING TABLE IN 2 DAYS OR LESS:

Once again, let us express that this process will not work with every type of gourd out there, and larger gourds are susceptible to damage through shriveling. Please do not try this on your prize gourds until you have experimented enough to have a feel for what will and will not work. In the process of doing these experiments, we lost some very nice gourds, based on theory and thoughts, so we highly recommend you try a sampling of what you have before jumping in with those prize babies.

On the thoughts of gourds and baking gourds, and a method of cleaning someone mentioned to us of steaming a gourd, (they said this is what the Koreans do), it suddenly hit us. What is a gourd? It is a vegetable, I wouldn’t want to eat one, but it is a vegetable. What happens when you poach or boil a vegetable? It gets soft and mushy. So, here is what happened when we put this idea to the test.

We first take a gourd that we are going to cut open, to make a planter, a scene on the inside, a vase, etc. Go ahead and make the cut now, while it is green, using a teaspoon we scooped out the bulk of the vegetable matter so the water could get to the insides of the gourd, put it in a large pan full of water and started the boiling process. We let it boil for about 1-2 hours, you will see the white veggie matter turning clear, almost like gelatin. Another note to this, is the gourd will sink, or almost sink as the shell and the pulp become waterlogged. Once it is ready, remove the gourd from the pan, you can run some cool water on it so it is cool enough to hold on to, and with a teaspoon or table spoon, simply scoop out the insides the same way you would scrape the ice cream off the inside of your ice cream bowl.

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