Drying
Gourds
During harvest you will notice your gourds are
heavy. That is because they are 90% water. During the curing
process this water evaporates out though the porous woody shell and
causes molding to occur on the surface. For this reason it is
advisable to keep the gourds outside.
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Gourds
hanging on
fence to dry. |
Gourds
on picnic table going through molding stage. |
People allergic to mold should be very careful
when handling gourds as
they are drying. Also be aware of the allergic
reactions that can occur when cleaning gourds. It would be a good
idea to use gloves or enlist the aid of someone without allergies to
clean them for you.
The
drying times for gourds can vary depending on size and variety of gourd.
Weather conditions also play a part in the drying process. You
may be waiting
six weeks to a year for the gourd to be fully dried.
Don't worry about letting
your gourds out in freezing weather. If they are
good mature gourds it will not hurt them. If they are damaged
by freezing
they wouldn't have been worth much for crafting anyway.
It is best to keep
gourds off the ground to allow for air circulation around
them. If your gourd goes soft during the drying process it wasn't
mature
enough and you can toss it out. Sometimes they will dry but you
can poke
your finger through the shell. Those might as well be tossed also.
Gourds are dry when
they feel lighter, seeds shake and the mold on the
outside is all dry. There are times when it is difficult to determine
if the
gourd is truly dry because not all seeds will be loose and some shells
may
be very thick and therefore still feel heavy.
Experience with gourds will help to determine when they are dry.
You
may have been told to drill or poke a small hole in the gourd to help
speed the drying process. There are two thoughts on this. One
is that it
is not a good idea because they will attract mold or fungus and cause
decay but yet I've just heard from others that it helped when cleaning
the
inside of the gourd. Maybe you can try it both ways just to be sure
you
don't lose your whole crop.
One way you may want
to speed up the drying process is called green
cleaning or scraping. A few weeks after harvesting the outer skin
begins
to loosen. You can tell by the change of color. At this
time take the outer
skin off by scraping with a dull knife. This will dry the gourd faster
and leave
a lighter surface that is great for woodburning. One
word of caution. If you
are not sure of the thickness of the gourd this may not be a good process.
The speedy drying can cause cracking in the thinner shelled gourds.
I found
this out when I ruined lots of gourds green cleaning.
A
good book for all kinds of information about gourds is "The
Complete Book of Gourd Craft" by Ginger Summit and Jim Widess.
This is the first gourd book I purchased and it really gave me
a good start.
You will learn
the different kinds of gourds, their historical use, how to grow
and craft with them. It shows you with plenty of pictures the
different techniques that can be used on gourds and has a few
tutorials. |
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Shop
at My Amazon Store
If you are in need
of gourds now and don't have any available or if you need them already
cleaned you can check out the gourds I have available. You will
find gourds grown in Pennsylvania and also gourds grown at Welburn Gourd
Farm in California.
PA Gourds
Welburn Gourds
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