Pumpkins are Gourdgeous Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Although some gourds like the snake or crown of thorns are edible when young and very tender, they are most often used for ornamental purposes. The Tiny Bottle variety is really just that - a tiny bottle-shaped gourd suitable for using as earrings or for a doll's dinner. Other varieties can be dried and painted or simply polished to use to create musical instruments, birdhouses, lanterns, bowls, spoons. The skins of gourds come in a variety of colours, including shades of green, brown, orange, yellow and purply blue. Their skins vary from completely smooth to very knobbly and some are covered in blotches.

They should be grown in aerated garden soil enriched with fertilizers and planted where they will get full sun to really thrive. Because they are vines, they should be staked and have something over which they can climb, like a trellis. Mulching is also helpful in keeping the roots of the plants cool and moist. The gourds will be ready to pick when the vine starts to die back. When they are hard on the outside and the vine is looking a bit worse for wear, the gourds can be cut off the plant leaving a few inches of stem attached.

Once the gourds have been harvested, they need to be cured (dried). Keeping them in a warm place for several weeks will acheive this. They can be carved as desired, sanded lightly then laquered or painted.

And a word about pumpkins. A pumpkin is technically a gourd as it is in the Cucurbitaceae family, as are squashes, cucumbers and melons - there are over 900 members of this prolfic family.