{"id":10835,"date":"2015-01-31T16:02:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T22:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/?p=10835"},"modified":"2015-01-31T16:02:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-31T22:02:21","slug":"the-calabash-conondrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/uncategorized\/the-calabash-conondrum\/","title":{"rendered":"the calabash conondrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

i posted a picture of a calabash tree when i wrote a few days ago about going to the edison & ford estates.\u00a0 i thought i’d take a moment to look up the calabash, because i knew nothing about it.<\/p>\n

well, wikipedia had lots and lots and LOTS of information about the calabash, many many uses for the gourd and the fruit inside and many different countries use it for different things – but then they said that this is the calabash VINE, not the calabash TREE.\u00a0 oh.<\/p>\n

kevin posted a comment, saying he has a pipe made out of calabash!<\/p>\n

so i just took yet one more moment to look at an entirely different website, and here’s some info about the calabash tree:<\/p>\n

the Calabash tree (Crescentia cujete) called Morro or Jicara in Spanish and luch in Maya, (not to be confused with the calabash vine) is native to the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico\u00a0and South America. The species are small trees growing to 33 ft tall. It produces a toxic spherical fruit that grows up to 12 inches in diameter. The pulpy insides of the fruit were used, sometimes together with the leaves, in the preparation of folk medicine. They were boiled with sugar to make a syrup that was used to treat coughs, colds and bronchitis. <\/em><\/p>\n

Both the flowers and the fruits are exotically beautiful. Calabash blooms and bears fruit throughout the year. The flowers are a bright, light green, shaped delicately like bells. The flowers grow directly from the trunk or branches and open up at night. The green ball-shaped or oval, smooth fruits have a hard shell and turn brown when ripe. The seeds inside are surrounded by light-colored fruit flesh.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Before modern utensils became generally available to poor people in Mesoamerica, the calabash tree was very valuable. There are many sizes and several distinct shapes of calabash, and each is put to special uses. The smaller one is made into dishes, cups, dippers, spoons and containers. The large, spherical calabashes are fitted with handles and are used as primitive rafts by fisherman. More commonly, the larger calabashes are cut in halves for holding grain or other dry materials. In Central America, the seeds of the Calabash fruit are toasted and ground with other ingredients (including rice, cinnamon, and allspice) to make the drink Horchata, and the hard outer shell is cut in half, dried and used as cups to serve Atol Chuco. Taino used the gourds to make instruments, the maracas and the guiro. The tree inspires devotion in a religious people: Its distinctive leaves are shaped like crosses and transfixed early Spanish explorers of the Americas.<\/em><\/p>\n

ok, i believe all the stuff about making them into dishes and even rafts, although that sounds a little wacky…but i’ve spent a good five minutes thoroughly researching central american horchata, and i have found no mention at all of it being made with calabash seeds.<\/p>\n

i feel that the only thing that the calabashes at the edison & ford estates are used for is growing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

i posted a picture of a calabash tree when i wrote a few days ago about going to the edison & ford estates.\u00a0 i thought i’d take a moment to look up the calabash, because i knew nothing about it. well, wikipedia had lots and lots and LOTS of information about the calabash, many many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[105],"class_list":["post-10835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ft-myers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6JLYy-2OL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceuncensored.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}