Ancestors

Toot

Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 19:04

In honor of Halloween, it's time for GOURD FACTS.

For every donation to the link below I will post one (1) fact about gourds, pumpkins, squash, and all the ways we use them. It's a really useful family of plants!

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mastodon

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Descendants

Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 19:15

Here's one to start: why are bottle gourds like that?

Most fruits are sweet or fatty, so animals eat them & spread the seeds. But bottle gourds are mostly air inside, and can be pretty bitter.

What's the deal with that?

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 19:15

We don't know for sure, but two things are definitely true about bottle gourds.

-They float

-They can dry up & hold their seeds for a really long time.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 19:15

Especially for plants in arid areas, floating is a good strategy to spread your seeds!

1. Grow near water (or a wash where water flows sometimes).

2. Grow fruits & let them dry up into little buoys full of seeds.

3. Wait for a flood to carry them wherever else the water goes.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 21:18

I see you guys! We're finishing up one last event, should be back a little before 6 👋

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 22:46

The first members of the squash family probably weren't grown for food. They were hard and/or bitter!

Instead, people probably first started keeping them around to dry out & use as containers.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 22:46

After all, you can eat a lot of things. But there are only so many lightweight, waterproof containers out there.

If baskets are too leaky and pottery's too heavy for what you need to do, bottle gourds are your best bet!

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 22:47

ack o'lanterns are from Europe, but squash aren't.

So before Europe found squash, they were making jack o'lanterns out of root vegetables. Turnips, rutabagas, beets, etc.

Credit where it's due, they really nail the "creepy" vibe.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 22:47

When people first started eating squash, we're pretty sure it wasn't the flesh- it was the seeds!

Squash's seeds are oily & tasty. The flesh on early squash was still hard, bitter, or both.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 22:48

Eventually, as people started growing a lot of squash, some of them would naturally have flesh that was less bitter. People got adventurous, started cooking it, and selecting for sweeter & sweeter fruits.

And now there's edible squash!

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 22:49

The classic "Cinderella" pumpkins don't do well in tropical and subtropical conditions.

But calabaza-type squash love it.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 22:50

Had good luck with Kang Kob pumpkins in the NC sandhills.

Do they look weird? Sure. Are they tasty & grow well? Yes! They're sturdy and handle our challenging weather & soil really well.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 23:15

Seminole pumpkins have a RANGE on looks & preferred weather. The Seminole people bred them to handle Florida's steamy weather- and then the US forced a lot of Seminoles to Oklahoma in 1849.

So now some Seminole pumpkin lines are adapted to Florida, and some to Oklahoma.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 23:15

GIANT PUMPKINS let's talk about em

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 23:16

You have to put them on a pallet when they're still a little baby pumpkin. So you can forklift them out of the field.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 23:16

A little over a decade ago, giant pumpkin growers were chasing a 2,000lb pumpkin. A one-ton squash.

Now, we've blown through that and growers are eyeing the 3,000lb limit.

We have no idea what the maximum size for a pumpkin IS.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/10/giant-pumpkin-world-record/680337/

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 23:17

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 23:17

Giant pumpkins usually wind up getting smushed by gravity. It's kind of charming. A "yeah I'm huge but I'm tired, be nice to me" energy.

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Written by Sarah Taber on 2024-10-31 at 23:18

And it's trick or treating o'clock! Showtime! Thanks for participating, have a good night everyone!

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Written by My camera shoots fascists on 2024-11-01 at 03:58

@sarahtaber

Omg. I had to zoom in to make sure this picture is what I thought it was. 😂😂

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-10-31 at 23:19

@sarahtaber oh my gourd

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Written by January Joan 🎉✨ Mask up on 2024-11-01 at 00:29

@falcennial @sarahtaber Underrated toot.

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-11-01 at 00:46

@clickhere @sarahtaber 😂🎃

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Written by January Joan 🎉✨ Mask up on 2024-11-01 at 08:18

@falcennial @sarahtaber 😀🎃

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Written by BoneHouseWasps🔶🇬🇧🇪🇺 on 2024-11-01 at 10:18

@sarahtaber Had to look up what a rutabaga was - we call theme 'swedes' in the UK.

MY favourite pumpkin fact is that Big Jim Martin from Faith no More is (or was) a champion pumpkin farmer.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/former-faith-no-more-guitarist-grows-monster-pumpkins

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Written by Martin Owens :inkscape: on 2024-11-01 at 15:09

@BonehouseWasps @sarahtaber

We call them turnips up north. Yellow turnips.

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Written by Barry Goldman on 2024-10-31 at 23:23

@sarahtaber wonder if hey could be grown successfully submerged in water!

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Written by Eric Lawton on 2024-11-01 at 01:12

@sarahtaber

A challenge for the International Space Station! 😀

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Written by Mme Zabet on 2024-11-01 at 14:37

@sarahtaber Big mood, especially the day after Halloween. XD

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Written by Bynkii on 2024-10-31 at 23:53

@sarahtaber so. many. pies.

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Written by noplasticshower on 2024-11-01 at 00:01

@sarahtaber same thing happened to Americans. Super size it.

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Written by Cat West on 2024-11-01 at 06:25

@sarahtaber What do they do with all these ginormous pumpkins AFTER? That’s a hella compost pile.

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-10-31 at 23:24

@sarahtaber we should be making dedicated pumpkin pallets, a softer, convex pallet top to cradle these beauties, whilst providing airflow. hmmm, I am getting very into this

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Written by 64 Islands Aroha Cooperative on 2024-11-01 at 00:17

@falcennial @sarahtaber and feeding them lots of silicon to help them keep their structure

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-11-01 at 00:27

@airshipper @sarahtaber really? sounds smart but I dont know if you're being funny or not. would it affect the taste

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Written by Rufus J. Cooter on 2024-11-01 at 01:24

@falcennial @airshipper @sarahtaber Been a few years since we broke up, but my Master Gardener & Master Composter then-girlfriend would talk at length about the challenges of trying to get plant root structures to uptake nutrients & minerals in quantities greater than their natural inclination

So, not an expert but I'm not inclined to think this would work

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Written by Rufus J. Cooter on 2024-11-01 at 01:27

@falcennial @airshipper @sarahtaber My thinking here is that maybe an extra-large kiddie pool, filled w/ some sort extra-dense gel? Like the ballistic gel that they shoot bullets thru while filming w/ ultra-high frame rate cameras? That might do the trick

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-11-01 at 01:30

@RufusJCooter @airshipper @sarahtaber 🤌🤌🤌

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Written by 64 Islands Aroha Cooperative on 2024-11-01 at 05:37

@RufusJCooter @falcennial @sarahtaber plant nutrient manufacturers can say whatever they like, just like the people who make vitamins and nutritional supplements. so yeah sell the ballistic gel as a growth medium for bulletproof pumpkins. you can get beautiful photos of root structures, even!

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-11-01 at 05:47

@airshipper @RufusJCooter @sarahtaber 🤣🤣🤌🤌

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-11-01 at 01:29

@RufusJCooter pretty interesting!

for that purpose, from the little I know about grafting, I imagine a scenario whereby the root and stem structures of several plants are grafted together, with the flowering and leafing structure pruned and controlled to have only one fruiting body. the Ronnie Coleman of pumpkins. The Pumpking, if u will

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Written by Rufus J. Cooter on 2024-11-01 at 01:14

@falcennial @sarahtaber Vaguely recall some 'extreme gardening' or some-such video, where a guy tried to grow his champion pumpkin on a trampoline, with a tension-gauge replacing one of the springs (to get a rough estimate of the weight), but the tramp had a structural failure w/ just a few weeks to go 'til harvest, and he woke up one early fall morn to a yard full of pumpkin puree

So, over-engineer these, whatever you do

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Written by millennial falcon on 2024-11-01 at 01:17

@RufusJCooter @sarahtaber 🤣🤣🤌🤌🤌

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Written by Ms. Que Banh on 2024-10-31 at 23:17

@sarahtaber Giant pumpkin growers are very passionate about their giant pumpkins! A few of them on the island here are quite obsessed with trying to win biggest pumpkin of the year awards!

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Written by Ms. Que Banh on 2024-10-31 at 23:21

@sarahtaber Giant pumpkin winners in recent BC history:

https://www.saanichnews.com/news/the-great-pumpkin-arrives-in-armstrong-via-kelowna-grower-7596475

https://victoriabuzz.com/2023/10/simply-gourd-geous-vancouver-island-pumpkin-crowned-largest-in-all-of-bc/

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Written by Lisa J. Warner / Lisa Luv on 2024-10-31 at 23:39

@sarahtaber

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃*Holy Cow!*Amazing!🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

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Written by Robyn on 2024-11-01 at 01:08

@sarahtaber

They look a lot like our regular pumpkins here in Aotearoa

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Written by crzwdjk ✅ on 2024-11-01 at 00:38

@sarahtaber Squash flowers are also a reasonably popular taco filling in Mexico.

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Written by January Joan 🎉✨ Mask up on 2024-11-01 at 00:26

@sarahtaber Greetings from Ireland, where the creepy turnips come from. You're welcome! 👋🏼🎃

https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Collection/Top-things-to-see-in-the-Irish-Folklife-Collection/Artefact/Ghost-turnip/b202e8ea-0728-4b3d-b0f1-82660fe45ce9

[#]GhostTurnip #Samhain #Halloween #MastoDaoine

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Written by Kaleb 📝 on 2024-11-01 at 00:53

@sarahtaber “credit where it’s due…”

The second image appears to be CC BY-SA 3.0 attribution Rannpháirtí anaithnid at English Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Traditional_Irish_halloween_Jack-o'-lantern.jpg

[#]Attribution #Wikipedia #CreativeCommons

Edited to clarify uncertainty, added “appears to be”

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Written by Drifthood on 2024-11-01 at 04:04

@sarahtaber in the south of germany, we still do use sugar beets

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Written by Steve is VRoomin’ on 2024-11-01 at 06:25

@sarahtaber @jcdvore Reporter.

I told my mummy on you.

Very cool :)

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Written by Giliell on 2024-11-01 at 10:03

@sarahtaber My mum, born and raised in Germany, 1952 onwards, remembers having made lanterns from beets. Later rutabaga and other large beets were considered "poor people's food" and no longer grown, so the tradition was lost until we discovered pumpkins. By now you can buy rutabaga again. But nobody uses them to make lanterns anymore.

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Written by Mr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) on 2024-11-02 at 10:46

@sarahtaber

Years ago, I had some neighbors who used turnips or beets to make Jack O'lanterns. It was quite a rustic, witchy look.

[#]HappyHalloween🎃☠️👻😱

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Written by JevidL on 2024-10-31 at 23:50

@sarahtaber You just reminded me of making gourd bird houses as a kid.

Fascinating how tools became food.

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Written by Irenes (many) on 2024-10-31 at 23:55

@sarahtaber whoa!!!!! that makes a ton of sense. super cool.

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Written by Richard Hector on 2024-11-01 at 11:21

@sarahtaber Great thread, thanks :-) I'm wondering if this can be the answer to some plastic uses. Perhaps they could be grown in boxes to constrain their shape?

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Written by Barry Goldman on 2024-10-31 at 23:27

@sarahtaber i remember buying some curvy 3ft long 6" thck yellow ones in college. kept them around as pets. eventually we had a sword battle with 2 of them...

but the third lasted for YEARS one day i noticed it was getting wrinkly and feared it would collapse in iccor so i cut it open. no, still just SLOOOWLY drying out. amazing.

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