At dusk on an evening in late July, Kit and I went for a drive in one of the farm trucks to check on the pumpkins. As we drove out towards “the walnuts” (what our family calls the row of trees along the southern border of our fields), the field was alight with beautiful white flowers. To my untrained eye, they looked like pixies were dancing through our field.

Now, I’ve been spending evenings at the farm for 11 years, yet until this night, I had never been fortunate enough to see these beauties. Honestly, I had no idea that gourd flowers are delicate and white and come out at night. (The beautiful, rich yellow flowers of pumpkins and squash bloom during the day.)

Gourds are truly miraculous. They start out as these delicate white flowers, bear fruit in a wide variety of shapes, colors and sizes, dry out and are reborn as beautiful objects of art (i.e. like this funny dude made entirely from TGPP gourds by one of the gourd artists displaying their wares here on the weekends).

I’ll leave you with one last tidbit about these amazing plants — Kit tells me that no one even knows where gourds originated. They are found throughout the tropics, having floated across the world’s oceans.

Plant some gourds and experience it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!

~ Emily Condill