Perhaps one of the oldest uses for gourds are as vessels for holding and transporting liquids. Dippers, bowls and drinking vessels have historically been crafted from gourds by peoples from around the world.

Have you heard of the drink called yerba mate?  An infusion that hails from Argentina, it has become increasing popular over the years, due in part to its rejuvenating and antioxidant properties.  This link will tell you all about how to prepare the drink and its history, but what we want you to know is that the bitter infusion is prepared in – and consumed from – a gourd in combination with a metal straw called a bombilla. Our raw roger gourds could be used in crafting a mate gourd, if you so choose. They are also offered for sale at Guayaki and other online vendors.

Curing Your Mate Gourd

We recommend that you “cure” your gourd prior to your first use. This helps to protect the gourd for yerba mate use.

1. Using a teaspoon, scrape the inside of the gourd to remove any loose skin and debris.
2. Fill the gourd ½ full with dry loose yerba mate.
3. Carefully top off the gourd with boiling water. Note: when drinking yerba mate later, DO NOT use boiling water as this can burn your mouth and also harms the flavor of the yerba.
4. After a few minutes the water level should go down as it soaks into the yerba leaves. When this happens, carefully top off the gourd again with boiling water.
5. Let the gourd sit for about 12 hours to allow the yerba mate mixture to penetrate the gourd completely.
6. Empty and rinse the gourd with hot tap water.
7. Scrape the inside again (see step one).
8. Rinse with clean hot tap water and dry quickly and completely (see care instructions).

Caring For Your Gourd

Following a timely cleaning and drying routine after each use, storing your mate in a dry location, and inspecting the gourd prior to each use, should keep your gourd clean.

1. Immediately after each use, empty the gourd of yerba and rinse the gourd with clean clean tap water (if you use hot tap water it will help it dry faster).
2. Hand dry the gourd with a clean towel. (A towel will not completely dry the gourd but helps removes the excess water so the gourd dries faster). Prompt and complete drying is necessary to prevent mold growth.
3. Place the gourd upside down on a rack in a dry location and allow it to dry completely. It may be necessary to dry the gourd near some source of dry heat like a home heat radiator. However, be careful not to place the gourd near a flame or where it could catch fire – the gourd is flammable!
4. When your gourd is dry, store your gourd right-side-up in a well ventilated area. We recommend storing it near a window where sunlight can enter the gourd to help prevent mold or mildew.
5. Always inspect the gourd before each use to make sure your gourd is clean.

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!!!

We thought it was appropriate to talk about everyone’s favorite cold weather drink on this snowy evening in Central PA. Hot chocolate – or hot cocoa – is a a staple during this cold months, and every culture has its

Mate Gourd Drink magazine.istopover.com

own unique twist on it.  For instance, there’s Mexican hot chocolate that adds a pinch of cayenne pepper. It sounds odd, but it’s actually delicious!  In our culture today, we have the convenience of instant hot chocolate packets.

Yerba mate is an ancient primarily South American drink that is now enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Read more about it here. It is traditionally served in mate gourds, which refers to the many small gourds that are recruited for that purpose, such as the roger gourd, or those our miniature witches and hellers are made from.

This drink is just regular yerba mate with cocoa added.  You can use sweetened cocoa or unsweetened and add your own sugar.  It is often made with milk substitutes such as soy or rice milk, so, unlike traditional hot chocolate, it could even be considered somewhat healthy.

What we think of as traditional hot cocoa. gateway.aurorak12.com

If you are like the many of us enjoying a night at home because of the snowy conditions, here is a good ‘ol traditional American hot chocolate recipe for you to try. If you are really adventurous you can make your own marshmallows too. Martha Stewart has a great recipe for that here.

This recipe is for a deliciously creamy cup and from allrecipes.com.

• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Directions

Combine the cocoa, sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Blend in the boiling water. Bring this mixture to an easy boil while you stir. Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes. Watch that it doesn’t scorch. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until very hot, but do not boil! Remove from heat and add vanilla. Divide between 4 mugs. Add the cream to the mugs of cocoa to cool it to drinking temperature.

Stay warm tonight!

precolumbianwood.com

Before there was pottery and basketry, there were gourds.  Gourds were among the first containers, bowls, plates, and utensils ever made.  Yup, they’ve been around as long as toolmaking has.  In fact, pottery and basketry seem to be modeled after gourds.  Look at this pre Columbian-era pot.  Clearly, you can see the bottom of a bottle gourd in its shape, just like the raw, cleaned bowls we sell on our site and in our retail store.  And look at these dipper gourds.  They practically scream, “I’m a spoon!”

onaleeseeds.com

Now, you can say these are the most reasonable, serviceable shape for containers and that pottery would have developed this way even without the gourds to guide them.  And you may be right.  In which case, mega kudos to Nature for providing such a wonderful tool for us!  Just by cutting a little off here and there, early humans had ready-to-use bowls, cups, spoons, etc.  And

journalofantiques.com

the gourd was one – perhaps the – earliest cultivated crop.  That’s a pretty amazing history, don’t you think?