A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger

Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. It has six principles of design: balance, contrast, dominance, proportion, scale and rhythm. This photograph shows our attempt at gourd arrangement, the decorative autumn art of the Poconos. I have at least suggested each principle, except perhaps dominance. This principle is expressed in another seasonal gourd presentation, the Jack-o-Lantern. 

A gourd and a squash are basically the same thing, at different ends of how humans use them. A gourd looks good. A squash tastes good. The butternut squash therefore is both squash and gourd. It is delicious, but its smooth surface, when dried, allows for painting and carving. 

In searching farm stands for gourds, I found several new shapes, sizes, colors, stripes, bumps. There were greenish-blue pumpkins and elongated shapes that might have been created by Dali. Some were pricey. They seemed like designer gourds. I wondered if this was a new thing. A web search found only one listing for “designer squash,” a photograph of a variegated pumpkin by New Jersey photographer Linda Stern. She told me that the title and the pumpkin were a one-off phenomenon to her, though perhaps we had discovered the beginning of a trend.

 Just as various breeds of dogs have been combined of late to the attraction of people with allergies, these new gourds seem designed for a similarly exclusive audience. Laboradoodle gourds. This must be a hot topic with at least one group, The American Gourd Society. 

 Founded in 1937 when the Depression inspired the need to organize, it has its own website and, until this year, hosted many events for gourd growers, artists and yes, designers. Some twist and turn their growing gourds into pretzel-like shapes, gourd bonsai. There is a Pennsylvania chapter. 

As fall turns into winter, our gourd/mum arrangement becomes performance art. The mums wilt with the first hard freeze and take their place among the compost. Then the gourds soften. Mice, chipmunks, birds, whoever is still awake, gets a nice meal before hibernation. When the gourds are gone, winter has arrived.