As far as I’m concerned, summer is over. The only things I’ll keep from summer are the vegetables that my Chinese neighbor keeps giving to me.
They are SO delicious.
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| AND… |
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| Would ya look at that? |
Don’t worry, I’m not gonna blog about tomatoes. It’s been done before. You could say the subject is “fleshed out.” Hyuck, hyuck.
What I want to talk about is this brilliant gourd. It’s English name is “Calabash” or “Bottle Gourd” and the Chinese call it “Hulu”. No, no relation of the online video streaming site (I checked), except perhaps the color scheme.
My neighbor said that in the “old days” people would hollow it out, cut off the top, and use it as a baby’s bottle. She could totally be screwing with me, but even so I think it’s a pretty fascinating concept. She said it’s also used as a cup for scooping, drinking, and serving meals. Smart!
I ran across this on Pinterest the other day and I couldn’t help but think how dumb we Americans are.
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| Picture and recipe from BetterRecipes.com |
We think if we hollow out a vegetable and serve mayonaisey dip in it we’re being clever. Maybe even resourceful. Look, I’m eating my bowl!
I’ll be honest. I get positively giddy if I’m given a cocktail in a hollowed out pineapple or coconut. Pop a little umbrella in it and I just might go to the moon. But as fun as those little umbrellas may be, they are merely a frivolous addition to island whimsy.
Listen to what other parts of the world are doing with the Calabash Gourd. It’s pretty dang amazing. Take that, you frivolous pineapple.
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| Photo found on the Wikipedia Commons |
Another thing you can use it for is a birdfeeder. This, would definitely go on Pinterest as long as it was decorated correctly and photographed nicely. You know the drill.
Ok, now is the moment of our discontent, maybe. Did I bore you by blogging about vegetables? I kind of expect you to say yes. And that’s ok. I didn’t plan to research the Calabash Gourd. It just sort of happened. And now that I’ve started I just can’t stop.
Give me more gourd! Of the Calabash sort!
Ok, we’re almost done. I promise.
The last thing about this veggie is this: if it had a celebrity look-alike it would most definitely be Kim Kardashian. Meet Cim Calabashian.
That is all. Thank you for listening to me talk about a vegetable for five minutes. Have a lovely day.
Please, oh please show up to a pool with 2 ginormous gourds and float with them!
Would you please start that rage on Pinterest? THese gourds just dont get the attention they deserve. How fascinating that you get to see firsthand what can be done with the calabash.
You know what, Amber? I think I’m going to. I’m also going to make a birdhouse and bowls. I don’t know what it is but I just connect with this vegetables. I feel like it’s an unsung hero.
[…] that make me think some people might have a tinge more confidence than is necessary, but like Kim Kardashian confident? Nah, really don’t know that […]
Cim Calabashian kills me! Especially the “bloop”!!
Cim Calabashian- haha so clever!
I thought long and hard about what Kim Kardashian would be thinking about and that was the best I could come up with.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the
book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is magnificent blog.
A great read. I will certainly be back.
GREAT MINDS! I promise you I went to the pumpkin patch specifically for gourds and when the pumpkin patch people were all, “you know Native Americans dried these out and used them for cups and bowls” I was all, “a blog post NEEDS to be written about this!” I was absolutely going to do one…until I saw you plagiarized my idea from my brain. I’ll let the post live here I suppose. Meanwhile, I WILL have a gourd birdhouse if it’s the last thing I do! I just don’t want to pay 45 bucks for one.