The other day, I went to lunch with some of the other retirees from where I worked… they call it “the old-timers lunch” and well… what goes on at the old-timer lunch stays at the old-timer lunch.
Except when one of your former co-workers mentions that she green cleans her gourds so they dry faster, and the reason she brought this up out of the blue was because…
Either she or her daughter or daughter-in-law listen to The Gardenangelists podcast and they heard the episode when we talked about growing and drying gourds!
Dee and I don’t know much about drying gourds and obviously didn’t know about green cleaning them.
But my fellow retiree, Theresa, was or is a member of the American Gourd Society, and she knew all about it.
She said that to dry gourds faster so they don’t rot while drying—and so you don’t have to wait months for them to dry—you green clean them. She sent me the picture above showing the knife she uses to scrape the outer skin off the gourds.
It takes a bit of time and I would guess a bit of practice and the right knife or scraper so you don’t gouge the gourds up, but once you get going with it, it’s probably one of those meditative things to do like crocheting or knitting. You can do it while you listen to podcasts…
I think she said she green cleaned 85 of these gourds, which her son grew for her.
What does she do with 85 green-cleaned gourds?
She paints them!
And as you can see, she not only paints them, she also paints the face of Mr. Grinch from Dr. Seuss’s famous book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas on them.
Then she punches a hole through the top of the gourd (or maybe drills a hole to so she doesn’t crack it; we didn’t discuss that detail), adds some yarn to make a hanger, and…
There is no way these Mr. Grinch Gourds will steal anyone’s Christmas in Whoville or any other place!
Inside each gourd, Mr. Grinch Gourd’s heart must be at least three times bigger than before.
Of course, now I want to grow gourds next summer. And green clean them and make something out of them.
Won’t that be fun?
Thank you, Theresa, for sharing pictures of your green-cleaned Mr. Grinch Gourds! Maybe next year, I’ll have some gourds to play with!
I’m Theresa’s daughter-in-law, the one who listens to your podcast. Theresa is so incredibly creative and talented!!! We have so many amazing painted gourds in our house that she has made for us over the years: birdhouses, snowmen, gingerbread ladies and St. Nicklaus, among others. I wish I could share pictures in this comment section. She worked so hard on those Grinches and they turned out beautifully!!! She’s amazing and I’m so proud to say that talented lady is my mother-in-law! 🥰
Tracy, Yes, Theresa is a very talented! You just never know what talents your co-workers are hiding!
I am blessed to call Theresa my friend. She is such a talented and precious lady.
Carol, I am so happy with your post about my grinch gourds.I loved the way you wrote the story. Thank you!
Tracy is my daughter in law, she is a master gardener with the Hendricks County group. I asked her which book I could buy from you and she said she has most of them already.
I hope you grow gourds next summer. They are so much fun to grow.
Bless you, Theresa
Merry Christmas, Theresa, and thank you again for sharing about your beautiful gourds! See you at the next lunch!
Very cute! Merry Christmas