Meadowbrooke Gourds goes on the road during the year to various shows, festivals and expos! Fall is an especially busy time with fun things to do throughout Pennsylvania virtually every weekend! Mark your calendars for the following fall events. Be sure to stop by the Meadowbrooke display and say hi when you’re there! We look forward to meeting you.

Meadowbrooke Gourds at National Apple Harvest Festival

September 10^th East Berlin Colonial Days

September 17^th Scarecrow Festival at the Broken Spoke Shop in Somerset, PA (Create your own Jack O’Lantern)

September 17^th Sacred Heart Wine Festival in Hanover, PA

September 24^th Moravian Book Store Bethlehem, PA (Create Your Own Jack O’Lantern)

September 25^th The Yellow Barn Center Valley, PA (Create Your Own Jack O’Lantern)

October 1^st Waterloo Gardens Exton, PA  (Create Your Own Jack O’Lantern)

October 1^st and 2^nd National Apple Harvest Festival Arendtsville, PA

October 8^th and 9^th National Apple Harvest Festival Arendtsville PA

October 9^th  Plow and Hearth Grand Opening in Harrisburg, PA (Create Your Own Jack O’Lantern)

Create your own Jack will be available at a number of these events!

More about each of these fun events coming soon!

Our pumpkin candy dishes are a great conversation piece for guests. Fill them up this fall with your own homemade caramels! Your guests will be so delighted.

Gourd "pumpkin" candy dishes at Meadowbrooke Gourds

Here is a recipe from about.com for caramels that are soft, chewy and melt-in-your-mouth good!

Watch a helpful video about how to make these caramels!

To make these caramels, you will need:
2 cups of heavy cream
1/2 cup condensed milk
2 cups light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 stick (or 4 oz) of softened butter, cut into pieces

Heat the Cream
Place a small saucepan over a burner set to very low heat, and add the heavy cream and the condensed milk. Basically you just want the cream to get warm so it doesn’t cause the hot caramel to seize when you combine them later, so don’t get it hot enough to boil.

Combine Caramel Ingredients
In a large saucepan combine the water, corn syrup and granulated sugar over medium-high heat. Stir the candy until the sugar dissolves, then insert a candy thermometer and reduce the heat to medium. Take a wet pastry brush and wash down the sides of the pan to prevent sugar crystals from forming and making the candy grainy.

Allow the mixture to come to a boil and cook until the thermometer reads 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the softened butter chunks and the warm milk-cream mixture. You will notice that the temperature will go down substantially, about 30 degrees.

Continue to cook the caramel and stir frequently so that the bottom does not scorch. Cook it until the thermometer reads 244 degrees, and the caramel is a beautiful dark golden brown.

Set the Caramel
Once at 244, remove the caramel from the heat and immediately pour it into a 9×9-inch pan lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Allow the candy to set completely.

Cut the Caramel Into Pieces
When the caramel is set and ready to cut, lift the caramel from the pan and place it upside down on a cutting board. Peel the foil layer from the bottom of the caramel. Spray a large knife with nonstick cooking spray, and cut the caramels into small 1-inch bars. If the knife gets sticky, wipe it off and oil it again as often as necessary.

Wrap the Caramels
As you can see, these caramels are wonderfully soft and chewy. Because of their soft texture, they’ll gradually spread and lose their shape if you don’t wrap them after they’re cut.

I like to use squares of waxed paper to wrap my caramels, and the easiest way is just to twist the ends, like a Tootsie Roll. You could also use cling wrap, or dip them in chocolate instead.

These caramels have an amazing, melt-in-your-mouth texture and a lovely creamy, buttery flavor, and they keep for several weeks at room temperature, so you can enjoy them over and over again.

Read more: http://candy.about.com/od/caramelrecipes/r/soft_caramels.htm

Here in Carlisle, PA we woke up to temperatures in the low 60′s! The crisp, chill air made us smile! Fall is just around the corner.

If you’re not yet in the mood for fall, maybe this short video will help.

Fall production at Meadowbrooke Gourds. Enjoy!

We may be jumping the gun a little bit with this fall-decor themed post, but we just can’t contain ourselves! Fall is our favorite time of the year here at Meadowbrooke Gourds and decorating with fall gourds offers endless inspiration and creativity. Get started now planning your fall parties and decorations. You will be ready when fall is finally here!

These beautiful ideas are from Better Homes and Gardens. They are using fresh, ornamental gourds for their displays, however, we suggest using dried gourds for a display that can be used and changed year after year!

Gourd Place Setting:
Charm your guests with an adorable petite gourd welcoming them to their seat!  Wrap a winding twig around each gourd. Then, attach a ribbon with each guest’s name.

image courtesy of Better Homes & Gardens. (click for original)

We suggest using one of our petite splendor gourds instead. They come packaged in a bag of five and you will receive one each of the following colors: Honey, Nutmeg, Paprika, Pumpkin Spice and Parsley.

Handcrafted Petite Splendor Gourds. (click to purchase online)

Multi-Layered Centerpiece
This centerpiece idea really caught our attention. Pairing gourds with books offers an unexpected table-scape. We love the look of the black with the natural colors of the gourds.

Image courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens. (click for original)

Layer striking black books with colorful dried gourds.  With all the different shapes and sizes available, your centerpiece display will be vibrant and interesting!

Click to Purchase

Since a dried gourd can be crafted like a piece of wood, it offers a wonderful medium to be crafted in a multitude of ways. Probably the easiest way to craft a gourd when you’re getting started is to paint them! We are always in awe at the creativity displayed through gourd painting. Many paintings go beyond “crafts” and enter the world of fine art.

A couple hints:
-Acrylic paints or oil paints will work on your gourd
- No need to seal or sand the gourd before painting it
- Let your imagination run wild!!

Here are a few examples of painted gourds that we just love! Use them as inspiration for your own gourd painting projects:

Gourd Art by Bonnie Gibson. arizonagourds.com

So bright and beautiful! (image courtesy of Coconut Grove Grapevine.)

Our very own Dorris Risser's Folk Art Cat Gourd (one of Meadowbrooke Gourd's past painting classes)

Morning Glory and Ladybug gourd painting class

Just adorable! by Aurelia Conway in the book "Great Garden Gourds Book"

Meadowbrooke Gourds offers painting classes throughout the year at our farm in Carlisle, PA. Experience painting gourds with the help of a professional artist! Check our website for upcoming classes. 

As we mentioned in a previous post,  Todd Heller is the currently featured Master Craftsman on the Crafter’s Corner portion of our website.

One of Todd's one-of-a-kind gourds featured right now on Crafter's Corner.

Here’s a little bit about him you may not know:

What do you like most about your job?
The flexibility and the people I work with

Name one thing that not many people know about you:
I like to go to car shows

Where is your favorite place in the world?
The beach

What is your favorite movie?
Fast Times at Ridgemont High

What music is playing in your car right now?
Rap

What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
Calamari

What do you do when you’re not at work?
Watch my kids play sports, work on my truck

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?
Black Raspberry

What is your favorite gourd?
My one-of-a-kind pieces

While poking around Twitter, we came across a blogger named, Nancy who runs the blog “Tales from the Mom-Side.” She wrote a great post today called, “Out of Our Gourds for Gourds” detailing her first encounter with dried gourds and crafting! She sure did her research about this fruit and art form and we wanted to share a portion with you on our blog. It is full of awesome information that some gourd enthusiasts may not even know!

From “Tales from the Mom-Side” Blog: Well, I got a little curious, because it seemed odd to me that a plant would be developed solely for decorative purposes, and Mom couldn’t think of any food purposes behind the gourd, so I did what any reasonable 21st century individual would do – I googled “gourd.”  I found out several interesting things about them.

First, they are related to cucumbers and melons.  I wouldn’t have guessed either relationship, although had I seen the scientific name for the gourd family first, Cucurbitaceae, I might have been able to guess at the cucumber relationship.

Second, they were brought to the United States around 10,000 years ago with the peoples who crossed over the land bridge which then existed on the Bering Straits.  Genetic tests have shown that the American bottle gourd is most closely related to the Asian bottle gourd.  The Asian bottle gourd is descended from the African bottle gourd.

Third, and I find this most interesting, the gourd was the first domesticated plant in the Americas.  It was not grown as a food crop, but as a container.  The gourd itself is the fruit of the plant; its shell is strong and buoyant, and has been used for thousands of years as containers, for musical instruments, and fishing floats.  FN.

Raw, cleaned gourds for crafting available online here.

Read Nancy’s full blog post here and perhaps even get some gourd crafting inspiration of your own.

We hope you have an fun time crafting your gourds!!!

As we enter August, we inevitably begin to see the “Back to School” signage everywhere! Although it may seem far away, we all know how quickly fall will be here and the kids will be off again!

This year, show appreciation to the teachers in your life with a special, unique gourd gift! They will be able to display it in their classrooms on the first day of school.

Thank you to all the teachers out there!!!

On the left: Signature Apple Gourd: http://www.gourdshop.com/catalog/crafters-corner/todd-heller-crafters-corner/signature-series-apple.html

On the right: Large Apple Gourd: http://www.gourdshop.com/catalog/all-season-handcrafted-gourds/apples-pears-handcrafted-gourds/large-gourd-apple.html

We have introduced a brand new feature to our website called Crafter’s Corner!!! Here you will find a series of products created completely by hand by a master gourd craftsman. Right now we are featuring the crafts and art of Todd Heller.

About Todd Heller:
I officially started working for Meadowbrooke Gourds in 2000, but I had done shows before for them and have been on every company vacation. I mainly work in the crafting area cutting and putting parts on gourds. I enjoy working with everyone here and I enjoy going to the shows to see people’s reactions to our creations. I’m married, and my wife works here too. I also have two children, Zack and Lauren. I like to spend time with my family and work on my little tiny truck when I am not at work.

Here are just a few of his signature items available online through Crafter’s Corner:

Signature Series Dragonfly Gourd

Signature Series Black Bumblebee

Signature Series Flower

View all of Todd Heller’s creations here. In honor of Crafter’s Corner, we will be posting a lot of crafting information, tips and tricks on our blog so stay tuned!

It’s hard to believe it, but we are into August already! There is only one month of the summer left and we are making the most of it. As sad as it is to see summer go, however, Fall is such a big time for us at Meadowbrooke Gourds. We always welcome the change of seasons here in Pennsylvania!

Until then, enjoy the dog days of summer with our NEW bulldog gourd and August product of the month! Ralph the Bulldog is approximately 4 inches in diameter and approximately 6 inches tall. He comes with a collar around his neck and a dog tag. We hope all of our dog and gourd lovers enjoy Ralph The Bulldog.

Meet Ralph the Bulldog

Click here to purchase.