(93 days) Open-pollinated. Anyone who sees these tiny 2–3" adorable green-and-white striped bottle gourds falls in love with them. They generated quite a buzz at our Common Ground Fair booth exhibit. Junior Gordon of Primm Springs, TN, the original source for this delightful conversation piece, says these are better known as spinning gourds and advises us to select our seed crops for short, fairly thick straight necks and to rogue out those with the longer crooked necks that won’t spin as well.
Staffer Sarah Oliver has developed no small skill in transforming these into charming decorated containers to showcase and store small objects. To spin them “take the neck between your middle finger and thumb and snap your fingers with a quick action.” Kids in Tennessee used to bring them to school as toys. Rampant vines are extremely prolific producers of the small fruits. Hard shells dry to tan color. ②