so I harvested my giant green soccer ball today

[magical thyme]

It's definitely a gourd of some type. I searched google images and couldn't find it. It's 9-10" high and 8-9" across its widest point. It's shape is similar to this:




It's color and pattern is more like this:



But with more of a creamy buttery tint to the lighter color, and with the segments marked by a stripe of the lighter color. The colors are less sharp than this image, and the lighter color looks like dabs of creamy paint on the darker ground.

So I still don't know what it is, but I'm going to figure out what to do with it as a Samhain project.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

1. Frightening perspective!

But, seriously, I'm out of my gourd, so won't be much help in helping to identify this particular species.

[Warpy]

2. If it's got a puckered bottom, it could be a teardrop chayote

in which case you'd prepare it like winter squash, scooping the seeds and either roasting it whole or peeling and cutting it into cubes and steaming it. Immature chayote, which is what I see in the supermarkets here, are sliced and sauteed in a little butter.

If it doesn't and it sounds hollow when you rap it, it's probably a variety of birdhouse gourd. Cut a hole in the side and allow it to dry, dump out the seeds, and hang it in a tree next spring for a returning birdie.

[magical thyme]

3. it's definitely not a chayote

Birdhouse gourd fits and will be a great use for it! thanks

I haven't grown anything like it, so I'm guessing a bird dropped the seed here. I'll try saving them and maybe plant some next year.

[PADemD]

4. It reminds me of the lemon cucumbers my husband grew one year.

They were round like the second picture, but speckled yellow.

[uppityperson]

5. That photo is great, I misread feet for inches. Cool gourd.

[magical thyme]

6. Yikes. I thought I was in the Lounge when I posted this...

Time for a glass of mead or something, I guess!