I had previously posted about a gourd plant engulfing our Blue Spruce tree and how its endeavor was futile. After the frost when the leaves of the gourd plant withered, there appeared inside the branches of the tree, previously hidden, one gourd.

Normal production for a martin house gourd vine is around 10 or so, but I was surprised to even see one. I kept meaning to take a picture of it but it stayed lower on The List than I ever got to on any particular day. I waited too long.

The snow storm that just dropped 6 inches (15 cm) of snow on us was preceded by a couple of windy days with gusts up to 40 mph (64 kmph). The heavy gourd ( it takes 8 months to lose its water weight and be cured) was still hanging on the dessicated vine but it lacked the strength to hold against the swaying in the wind, so I missed my chance to show it in the tree.

gourd-in-tree.jpg

So here it is laying on the ground the morning after the storm. See also the deer tracks who were on their routine patrol of our our yard during the night.

I brought the gourd in and thawed it out. I tried pushing on the blossom end to see if there is any give. There wasn’t. If it had it would have meant that it was too immature and would have collapsed in on itself during curing.

The next step is to leave it alone for the winter months and check it next spring to see if the shell is thick enough to be usable. A gourd grows to its full size, then  thickens. If it doesn’t thicken enough, we discard it.

So we now get to have a winter of anticipation to see how it turns out. No happy endings every 60 minutes when living in the country AND ( a big “and” these days) living the country lifestyle to at least some degree.