This year, I have experimented for the first time with growing the famous Calabash, or Bottle Gourd, pictured right. Apparently, it is one of the oldest crops grown by man, and one of the few crops grown in both the Old and the New World – gourds are believed to have floated over the ocean from Africa to South America several thousand years ago.
The calabash gourd is reputed to have a myriad of uses: in Southern China it is used in stir fries and in soups.
in Tanzania the pulp-coated sweets are cooked with sugar and sold as sweets; and it also plays a role in traditional medicine in many parts of the world. However, it is primarily as vessel that it is famous. The dried fruit is used in Africa, Asia, and South America for a myriad of uses, including drinking vessels, floats for fishing nets, storage containers, musical instruments, and smoking pipes. I am not sure whether or not it is possible to dry the gourds in the Breton climate, it is a process that is reputed to take several months, and involves the skin and the flesh of the fruit drying out completely, leaving the seeds rattling around inside. If anyone has any experience in this area, I would be glad to hear from them.
