Birdhouses from Birdhouse Gourds only available in shop while they last. photo by Emily Rozema The 10,000 Year History of the Birdhouse GourdThe birdhouse gourd may look like a squash plant growing in the garden, but it is actually part of a very old relationship between people, plants and birds. Its botanical name is Lagenaria siceraria. You may also know it as a bottle gourd, calabash or hard shelled gourd. And people have been growing and using them for thousands of years. One of Our Oldest Useful PlantsUnlike pumpkins and squash that were mainly grown for food, bottle gourds were valuable because of how they dried. The outer shell becomes remarkably hard and lightweight. Once the inside is cleaned out, the gourd becomes a natural container. Long before plastic bottles, metal buckets or even pottery were common, people could grow their own containers. Bottle gourds have been made into bowls, cups, bottles, dippers, storage containers, fishing floats, musical instruments and eventually birdhouses. Archaeological evidence shows just how old this relationship is. Researchers studying a rock shelter in Honduras found bottle gourd remains dating back roughly 11,000 years. The gourds appear to have been used as watertight containers and possibly for cooking and drinking. That makes the bottle gourd one of the oldest plants humans intentionally used and cultivated for something other than simply eating it. A Plant That Travelled the WorldThe bottle gourd originated in Africa, but somehow managed to spread through tropical areas around the world thousands of years ago. Part of the reason may be its incredible ability to float. Experiments have found that dried gourds can spend months floating in salt water and still contain viable seeds. Genetic research published in 2014 found that ancient American bottle gourds were closely related to African gourds and suggested their ancestors may have floated naturally across the Atlantic before people began cultivating them in the Americas. A gourd falls into the water in Africa, floats across an ocean and eventually helps establish a plant population on another continent. Researchers are still piecing together exactly how bottle gourds travelled around the world, but we know people were using them in the Americas thousands of years before European contact. So When Did a Gourd Become a Birdhouse?That is where the Purple Martin enters the story. Purple Martins are cavity nesting birds. They do not carve out their own nesting holes. Instead, they look for an existing cavity where they can build their nest. Long before Europeans arrived in North America, Indigenous peoples were hanging hollowed gourds that Purple Martins began using as nesting sites. Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon both document this early tradition of providing gourds for the birds. There were practical reasons for wanting the birds nearby. Purple Martins eat flying insects, and their loud alarm calls could also alert people when animals approached. Some historical accounts suggest gourds were intentionally placed around settlements and food storage areas because of this relationship. In eastern North America today, Purple Martins nest almost entirely in human provided housing, including wooden martin houses and artificial or natural gourds. In western parts of their range, they are still more likely to use natural cavities. The Tradition ContinuedEuropean settlers continued the practice of putting up homes for Purple Martins, and martin houses became a familiar sight around farms, inns and country homes. By 1831, naturalist John James Audubon wrote about seeing martin boxes at country taverns. He even joked that the nicer the martin house was, the better the tavern was likely to be. Over time elaborate wooden martin houses became popular, but the simple dried gourd never disappeared. From Garden to BirdhouseThe birdhouse gourds we grow today are the same species that humans have found useful for thousands of years. They grow on enormous vines and produce a green fruit with a rounded bottom and narrower neck. Once mature, the gourd is allowed to dry until its shell becomes hard. This takes the entire winter season. A hole can then be cut into the side, the dried material and seeds removed, and the shell turned into a completely natural birdhouse. There is something pretty amazing about growing a plant in your garden knowing that people were growing variations of the very same plant thousands of years ago. We value the relationship between humans and birds that we get to continue today.  photo of finished Birdhouse Gourd with Turnip the cat and Tomato the cat at Mingle Hill Farm & Apothecary Shop ~ photo by Emily Rozema
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Now Is the Time to Preserve Your Herbs for WinterIf you have herbs in your garden, now is the time to start thinking about winter. Harvest what you think you will need for the colder months and dry it now while the plants are fresh and full of flavour. It is best to harvest in the heat of the afternoon to have the highest amount of beneficial oils. However anytime of day is still good.  📷 by Emily Rozema We try to use our dried herbs within one year of harvest. Dried herbs do not suddenly go bad after a year, but their flavour, aroma and quality diminish over time. This is one of the reasons our Mingle Hill spice blends and loose leaf teas are so potent and flavourful. We grow and harvest our herbs here on the farm and use them within one year.  📷 by Emily Rozema With many grocery store spices, you simply don't know when the plant was actually harvested. In Canada, shelf stable foods that last longer than 90 days generally do not require a best before date. That means the jar may tell you very little about the actual age of the herbs or spices inside. How to Dry Your Own Herbs Drying herbs at home is incredibly simple. Gather your herbs into small bundles and place an elastic around the stems. Take a paperclip, open it up and use it as a little hook to hang the bundle upside down. Hang your herbs in a cool, dry, dark place with good airflow. A spot in your kitchen or large pantry away from a sunny window can work well. Sunlight can break down the colour, aroma and quality of dried herbs, so keeping them away from direct light is important. Most bundles will take around two weeks to fully dry, depending on the herb, humidity and size of the bundle. The most important part is making sure they are completely dry before putting them into a jar. Any moisture left in the plant can encourage mold. If you aren't quite sure they are dry enough, you can finish them in a dehydrator on a low setting. A dehydrator is also a great way to speed up the entire process. Once completely dry, remove the leaves from the stems and store them in a clean glass jar in your spice cupboard, away from heat and sunlight. Then enjoy your own homegrown herbs all winter. Use them individually for cooking, make herbal tea, or start experimenting and create your own custom spice blends.  📷 by Emily Rozema Homegrown dried herbs and homemade spice blends make brilliant Christmas gifts. A little glass jar, a handwritten label and herbs you grew yourself. Simple, useful and actually made by you. There is something pretty satisfying about opening a jar in January and smelling the herbs you grew in your own garden the summer before.  📷 by Emily Rozema
This year, we discovered five enormous green hornworms happily eating our pepper plants. A single hornworm can eat an impressive amount of foliage, so they are not always welcomed by gardeners. Instead of killing them, we moved ours away from the vegetable garden and placed them near the pond. There, they could become food for the birds or, if they were mature enough, burrow into the soil and begin their transformation. Hornworms found on peppers are usually tomato or tobacco hornworms. Both feed on plants in the nightshade family, including tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplants. When fully grown, they leave the plant and burrow into the soil, where they become pupae before emerging as large moths.  What Does a Hornworm Become? A tomato hornworm transforms into a five spotted hawkmoth, while a tobacco hornworm becomes a Carolina sphinx moth. Both belong to the sphinx moth family. They are large, strong flying moths with long wings and thick bodies. Adults hover in front of flowers and use a long, tube shaped mouthpart to drink nectar. As they move between flowers, they can carry pollen and become valuable evening and nighttime pollinators. You can sometimes tell the caterpillars apart by their markings. Tomato hornworms have white V shaped markings and a dark horn. Tobacco hornworms have straight diagonal lines and usually a reddish horn.  Is a Sphinx Moth the Same as a Hummingbird Moth? This is where it becomes confusing. Sphinx moths are sometimes called hawkmoths or hummingbird moths because they can hover over flowers and even fly backwards. Their rapid wings and long feeding tube make them look surprisingly similar to a tiny hummingbird. However, the moth most people recognize as a hummingbird moth is the hummingbird clearwing moth. It is a different species within the same large sphinx moth family. The hummingbird clearwing is smaller, often active during the day and has transparent wings with a fuzzy green and reddish body. The moths that develop from tomato and tobacco hornworms are generally larger, grey or brown, with solid wings, and are most active around dusk or after dark. A Garden Pest or Part of the Ecosystem? As caterpillars, hornworms can quickly damage vegetable plants. As adults, they become remarkable moths that visit flowers and help move pollen through the garden. They are also part of the farm’s food chain. Hornworms provide food for birds and beneficial insects, while the adult moths become food for bats and other nighttime animals. We certainly did not want five hungry hornworms finishing our pepper plants, but we also did not feel that they needed to be destroyed. Moving them gave nature the opportunity to decide what happened next. Sometimes the creature eating your garden today may become one of its pollinators tomorrow.  |
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