Bottle Gourds

These are our Gourds grown in our garden and that we have just picked today - 4th April 2016.   Seven of them, both large and small and we have put them into a nice warn spot at the school to dry out before we make them into birdhouses

Growing ornamental gourds for decorating and making birdhouse’s is great fun and surprisingly easy and they make a great natural addition any garden.  The best gourds for this are "Bottle Gourds", see below

Nga Puhi Gourd

The early Polynesian settlers to New Zealand brought two South American plants, the kūmara and the gourd.  The gourd being grown here is called Nga Puhi and is a beautiful round gourd with a neck.

Māori ate the young fruit of the gourd, or hue, in summer, baking it in an earth oven.  Hollowed out, the matured fruit provided water vessels and food containers.  Empty gourds were also made into musical instruments and are useful to carve.  

Gourd Instruments

It would appear that in pre European days the Maori used different forms of gourd instruments and this was dependant on the size of the gourd. The larger ones was used as is a trumpet or horn and from it was produced a most horrid and loud noise. The smaller gourds produced softer sounds and this was done by blowing into the mouth of the dried gourd casing in which were punctured two or three holes to get different tones. The Maori name for the smaller gourd instrument is “rehu” (flute).