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October 3, 2009

GORGEOUS HARVEST: Parke County’s Sandlady offers up gourds of all shapes and sizes

By Marjorie Hopkins

HOWARD — The etymology of the word “gorgeous” indicates the word was derived from the French some 500 years ago and refers to the elegantly dressed and adorned, as with jewelry. Helen Thomas, though, will disagree and tell you she thinks the word derives from gourds, the fruit that’s not really good to eat — but excellent to decorate and use. She claims her hand-grown produce are simply “gordeous”! Actually many of her gourds grown in the little country berg of Howard, near Tangier, have been turned into beautiful pieces of art, displayed in many gourd art books.

Thomas became enraptured with gourds in the 1970s. She and her husband were melon farmers, selling watermelons, muskmelons (cantaloupe) and pumpkins from their farm. Her beginning with gourds was quite a fluke, Thomas said. It was a fluke that became not only an entertaining enterprise but also a livelihood through sales, speaking engagements and a gourd festival all her own.

Thomas said she had always had fun trying to grow unique melons like watermelons that yielded a yellow fruit center rather than the common red or orange colored squash.

“People always like something different and people’s curiosity is fun,” she said. It was when a shy nephew who needed to sell two boxes of seed and Thomas bought them all that she discovered the fun and curiosity gourds afforded.

“There were two packages of gourd seeds among the others. I never thought about selling them,” she said. “But, I planted them and did I fall in love with them!” Thomas said she used to just walk the rows of gourds and look at them, trying to figure out what they would turn out to be under the hand of an artist. “You let them talk to you,” she said. “It’s all in the imagination.”

At first she started with those two rows, the next year she had three, the next four rows and from there she continued to expand until one year she had 12 acres of gourds.

The melons went by the wayside as soon as Thomas and her husband saw the potentials of selling gourds. It was a $2,500 order from a well-known gourd artist early on in the Thomas’ gourd selling history that led them deeper into the business. Not only was the sale an eye-opener for Thomas but, she said, the art work of Jaimie and Kerrie DeVrient showed her what could be done with gourds.

One piece of DeVrient’s art in particular caught Thomas’ eye. “It was like looking in on something heavenly,” she said. “It was fine art and I saw what you could do with gourds. I hadn’t seen that before.”

Probably best known as becoming Blue Martin birdhouses stemming from Native American origins, gourds come in all different shapes and sizes and have been used throughout the ages for utility purposes as well as for art.

Gourds are in the family of pumpkins and considered a fruit, but most really have very little nutritional value and very little desired taste, Thomas said.

They are believed to have been used as some of the first bowls, cups and other dishes and food storage containers used by mankind, after drying and cutting into different sizes. “I think God gave them to people originally for dishes, to bathe in, for instruments and to store food in,” Thomas said. Some varieties of gourds include Kettle, Bushel, African Kettle, Bottle and Tobacco gourds, according to Thomas. You’ll find various sizes and shapes and varieties growing in Thomas’ fields.

Gourds also have a history of becoming musical instruments throughout the ages and today are lacquered and decorated to become beautiful banjos, drums, shakers and rattles, to name a few. In North America it was after World War II that gourd art became extremely popular, especially in the Southwest by Native Americans. By 1940 gourd art had become popular with the masses, Thomas said, with some gourd artwork selling for more than $20,000 a piece. Pieces on display at the Eitelgorge Museum average $5,000 each, she said.

The best gourds are extremely hard-shelled, known for their thickness and soundness and that is what brings many buyers to Thomas’ gourd farm. While many gourd harvesters will sell their best gourds, Thomas keeps some of hers to use the seeds to continually harvest some of the best and thickest-skinned gourds.

“It’s the difference between boards and cardboard,” she explained.

And people want the heaviest skinned gourds to work with. That’s probably why you’ll find Thomas’ gourds used by many artists and featured in at least 12 gourd craft books in print. She has also appeared PBS Across Indiana educational programs and was even spoken of by Paul Harvey on his nationally syndicated radio talk show, “And That’s the Rest of the Story.”

Thomas also has a talent for looking at gourds and imagining what they could become.

She has calls from people wanting gourds for special purposes and she talks with them until she is certain of the purpose and then selects the best ones she has for shipment. Some may want them to look like apples, or a turtle, a penguin, and on and on.

“You just have to use your imagination,” Thomas said. “I just love looking at them. It’s like they’re alive. I just love them.”

Today the Thomas’ not only sell from their farm, you’ll find them at the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival where more than 2 million people will pass through searching for unique items. As well as raw gourds, Thomas will also offer several painted varieties for sale. The festival is Friday through Oct. 18 this year.

Thomas is also a highly sought speaker, conducting gourd seminars from her farm as well as traveling to address church groups, school groups, ladies clubs and other organizations — some with as many as 350 people in attendance.

Her own collection of gourds, decorated by different artists, displays the wide and varied uses and ways to make gourds ornamental, and includes hundreds of dollars in artwork.

Because of the farm’s popularity she decided to start her own festival — the Gourd Festival — and this year it is Friday and Saturday at the Thomas farm.

It is an event to educate the public in the use of gourds in growing, harvesting and crafting in art and music, by the use of classes and demonstrations. For directions and more information, you can check out Helen Thomas, the “Sandlady” at www.sandlady.com.

For more information on the artwork of gourds and to see some of the intricate, incredible gourd art, check out the American Gourd Society at www.americangourdsociety.org; the Indiana Gourd Society at www.indianagourdsociety.org; the International Gourd Art at www.americangourdsociety.org/international.html; the Alabama Gourd Society at www.alabamagourdsociety.org/html/international_gourds.html and the Gourd Societies around the World at justgourds.com/gourd%20info/gourdsocietiesaroundtheworld.htm.

These are just a few of the Web sites dedicated to gourds and gourd art.

For speaking engagements, you may contact Thomas at (765) 498-5428, e-mail her at sandlady@sandlady.com or visit the “Sandlady” Web site listed above.

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