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.

Continuing on with our gourd drying process updates for those of you that want to dry your own gourds…

The gooseneck gourd is finally starting to show some signs of drying.  You can see, there are some patches of mold.  The skin has started to discolor, too, that yellow color is not a reflection of anything.  It does not yet feel any lighter.  The martin, as you can see, continues to dry and gather mold.  It is very light, but it does not rattle when shaken.  Neither one of them is very smelly yet, so they’ve both got a ways to go, and a whole long winter to do it in.  We’ll keep checking in with them.

Here they are, right off the farm.

Taken 12/3, almost exactly two months into the process.

Some moldy patches and some skin discoloration

Our November Product of the Month is an addition to our Nick family. Big Nick now has smaller cousins.  They are martin gourds, and even the noses and pipes are gourd pieces!  Big and Medium Nick glow, too.

Add these lovely gourds to your Winter collection…

The martin gourd continues to dry out quickly.  It’s getting good and ugly, developing a good layer of mold.  It’ll start smelling soon (Which is why we strongly recommend setting them outside to dry.  And the other gourd, the gooseneck, is now showing real signs of drying.

Here’s a question: How do they dry out?  How does the water get out through that think, hard skin?  Well, thick and hard as it is, it is still a plant and the skin is porous, so some gets out that way.  A lot of it, though, goes out through the stem, which is very porous.

When you see raw, fresh gourds, take a look at the stems.  They’ll have about 2” of stem, and it will be a clean cut.  The stem will not look like they were twisted off the vine.  That’s because twisting the stem renders it useless for helping dry the gourd, and twisting the stem can allow infection in, which will make it even more difficult for the gourd to dry.

Here they are, right off the farm.

November 2

Ohmygosh!  We nearly forgot to call your attention to our October Product of the Month!  She’s been on our home page and Facebook, of course, along with all our POTMs, Here’s the link to her.

As with all of our POTMs, Zelda is adorable.  (Although you probably shouldn’t say that to her face.  She prefers to think she’s very scary.)  She started life as a martin gourd, but just look at her now!  She even lights up, and she’s perfect for this Halloween…and for every other Halloween.  Check her out.

Say hi to Zelda the Witch.

The martin after 1 week

It’s only been about a week since we first showed you the gourds and already, there is noticeable change.  You may recall from earlier posts that it will take pretty much the entire winter for them to dry completely, and that they may get moldy and even smelly during that time.  As you can see, the martin gourd is already showing that.  It’s happening with the gooseneck gourd, too, but not as quickly, and it’s not as easy to see because of the darker coloring. You can still see some spots of discoloration on it, though, when you compare it to the earlier picture beneath the current one.

Stay tuned throughout the winter for more!

The gooseneck after 1 week.

Here they are, right off the farm.

Surely you can come up with something more creative than our Billy Jack family.

Hello, everyone.  First, just a reminder about this weekend’s Open House activities.  You can always pick your own pumpkin or gourd, but this is the second weekend for our Create Your Own Jack-O’-Lantern activities.  You pick the gourd, your draw the design, and our artists carve it on your gourd for you.  You can enter your creation in our contest, if you like.  Maybe yours will be the one chosen to be in our new catalog!  Click here for more information.

We’re starting a project on our blog.  We’ve talked about drying, cleaning, and crafting a gourd, and we will continue to do that.  But now we’ve got a couple that you can go through the process with us, step by step.  On the right

Here they are, right off the farm.

are two gourds, a martin and a gooseneck.  What is in front of them for scale is the case from an audio cassette tape (Remember those?).  They’re just off the farm and we are beginning the process of drying them.  As we’ve suggested you do, we have them set up off the ground.  It will not hurt them to sit directly on the ground, it just slows the drying process.  Periodically throughout the winter, we’ll check back on these and show you the gourds at the various stages of drying.

If your weather is anything like ours right now, it’s beautiful out and a perfect week to pick a pumpkin and create a Jack-O’-Lantern.