Algerian Gakhaa gourd 

I started sitting with my vines and just watching them during the three main parts of the day, trying to get all three sit-ins times at least once a week. Keeping each other company. One seemingly trivial thing I began taking serious note of was the tiny gourds would burst forth only to shrivel up, sucked dry by the mother vine. 

The gourd pictured started out life way up at the top of some wild yellow primroses. As it swelled, it drooped down onto a blackberry cane. Ruining my hope of transforming it into a shekere instrument, from a genuine North African gourd variety, next spring. A small brown spot formed across one of the scratches, and I protectively knifed the umbilical cord and set the hard fruit out to dry. "Wait a minute, this thing is heavy for it's size. Where is all this moisture going to go to? How will it escape?" It will dry, surely, but not before the shell becomes like wet leather and I spend too much time worrying about the seeds inside making it out alive. 

For reference, I grew this on the border of zone 7 and 8. Georgia, U.S.A. 

I have been wondering, off and on, about all those poor little shriveled baby fruits. Siphoned into themselves before they had a real chance at life. Seems to me that the vine works kind of like a straw...what if the vine drinks the subtle sogginess from the mature fruit to help harden [cure] it? The advice I'd heard about leaving the gourds on the vine until frost, or until the seeds rattle inside, or until the shell does not indent from the pressure of a fingernail, or until the green bleaches pale, all these things seemed kind of vague and mystical until now. Now everything is crystal-clear.

Allow the gourd to mature on the vine.
The vine will help cure it by sucking it dry. Leave it until it is light as a feather.

To see where I bought my original seeds a few seasons ago, and for a handy little description of the variety itself, *visit the product page here* on the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds company website.