Spring Quarterly Meeting
Our Spring Quarterly meeting will be held on
March 8, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. at the Durham Main Public Library.
This meeting will feature discussions on gourd growing and gourd crafting with a free seed sharing.
As always, the public is welcome to attend.
The North Carolina Gourd Society (formerly the Gourd Village Garden Club) first met in Cary in 1937. The oldest chapter of the American Gourd Society, it is among the oldest garden clubs in North Carolina. Early festivals were held in the school cannery, a dry cleaners and a furniture store. Over the years festivals have featured dolls, a gourmet gourd buffet, hard-working, practical gourds and Mother Goose gourds.Gourds are grown as garden novelties for their strange and wonderful shapes and as craft material. The smallest can be the size of a marble and the largest a 200-pound armful. A household necessity since prehistory, gourds still are used today. Many growers raise birdhouse gourds as homes for purple martins, colorful ornamentals decorate our Thanksgiving tables, and luffa sponges are popular bath time buddies. What U.S. gourd growers call gourds are three different plants. All are cousins of squash, some closer kin than others.
Membership in the North Carolina is $10 and includes four issues of the Gourd News which contains information for both the quarterly meetings of the North Carolina Gourd Society officers' and general membership in central North Carolina and information on the Western Carolina Gourd Patch.
Click HERE to see our current by-laws. The North Carolina Gourd Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation dedicated to the culture and heritage of gourds in America.
North Carolina Gourd Patches
The Western North Carolina "gourd patch" continues to be a huge success When you live in a big state like North Carolina, it can be a long drive to a gourd club meeting. Because the interest in gourds is so strong in this state, this "Gourd Patch" meet so that folks on the western side of the state can share the gourd word. For more information on the next meeting for the Western Carolina Gourd Patch Society please call Doreen Peterson and see their web site at http://www.orgsites.com/nc/wncgourdpatch/ for more information on upcoming workshops.There is interest in starting a "Beach Patch," so if you live along the North Carolina coast, please contact Rosalyn Moody.
There are two Triad Patches that cover the Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Highpoint areas. The basics and intermediate work are taught every third Tuesday of the month at the Flower and Garden Building of the Dixie Classic Fair Grounds in Winston-Salem. Contact Judi Fleming. For the advanced classes in the High Point area of the Triad, contact Coleen Atkinson to learn more about their meetings on the first Saturday of each month.
This year's 66th Annual North Carolina Gourd Festival will be September 8-9, 2007 in the Kerr Scott Building on the North Carolina State Fair Grounds in Raleigh, North Carolina. This year's festival theme will be "International Gourds." Vendor and competition packets will be sent to members with the Summer 2007 newsletter or upon request by writing to the address below.
Marvin Johnson Gourd Museum
The Marvin and Mary Johnson Gourd Museum has been relocated to the Town of Angier. Many thanks to the town for the lovely display and the hard work in the relocation. http://www.angier.org/
Membership Information
Annual dues are $10 and include four newsletters. For information, write:
North Carolina Gourd Society
2713 Peachtree Street
Raleigh, NC 27608
or call (919) 781-7069
What are the benefits of joining? Free seeds, a newletter four times a year, special speakers at our quarterly meetings, finding friends with similar gourdly interests, crafting, growing, curing, tips and a wonderful gourd festival each year.
URL: http://www.ncgourdsociety.org/
Last modified March 7, 2008
Maintained by: Judi Fleming