Have you always thought, as I used to, that the inedible gnarly gourds of autumn are fairly weird, fairly useless garden oddities? That besides making attractive table ornaments or centerpieces for holiday entertaining and maybe bird houses, they seem mere whimsy and a waste of garden effort and space.
It turns out, there’s a great reason why for centuries humans have cultivated and prized gourds. Although some varieties, like Asian snake gourds, are actually fleshy and edible, most gourds were valued precisely because they were empty inside.
With no tools and skills yet available to readily create ceramic, glass, metal or even wooden bowls and vessels, clever ancient peoples worked with the hollow, durable, ready-to-use (and totally planet-friendly) objects nature provided–gourds. They just lopped off the tops, removed (and ate) the seeds, and turned the remaining bulbous portions into handy ladles, cups, bowls, bottles, canteens, jars and other simple kitchen containers.Sometimes, they also carved, painted, and polished whole gourds and prized them as toys, art or ritual objects, or as musical instruments such as rattles and drums (shown below right) and even guitars. Even now in parts of South America a traditional tea-like beverage called yerba maté is still drunk from calabash goblets, and certain Native American tribes still fashion gourds into ceremonial rattles, shakers and clubs.
Now that I actually “get” gourds, they’ve gained my respect. I’m wondering if, in the interest of going greener, we more advanced societies should embrace them again. They are sustainably produced, biodegradable, naturally lightweight, sturdy, and come almost ready to use and in nearly infinite shapes (note the strange goose-neck gounds below left!). Perhaps learning to produce the vast array of environmentally unfriendly plastic-ware, bottles, and jugs that now litter our landscape really wasn’t progress? 
Perhaps you’re in an autumn mood now and would like to try some dishes that feature the more palatable cousin of gourds, pumpkins. How about my delish pumpkin bread, or my pumpkin soup here.
A walk through Trader Joe's the other day was a celebration of things pumpkinesque. From pancake and muffin mixes to soup (yours will be better I'm sure) puddings and pastries, we seem to be experiencing a stronger-than-usual pumpkin frenzy this year. And pumpkin is a rich source of Vitamins A,C and potassium.
Lovely pictures. I'm afraid I'd be afraid of storing liquids in gourds, but interesting that they were used for that purpose.
I have heard of bottle gourd, but didn't know they could serve as sponges. Wow, even more useful than I already discovered. Peeps where I grew up in MD used to drill a hole and put them out as quick bird houses.
Hello Nancy
Brilliant seasonal photos!! Just wanted to share with you that there is a type of gourd/squash called bottle gourd when these dry out they make good "loofah"s too:)
Gorgeous photos! You make me want to run right out and get a lot of those mini-gourds and scatter them all over the house in an autumn frenzy. (Kidding about that last.) Seriously, I've got to try your pumpkin soup recipe.