gourd

To help figure out which seeds to use, he built a database that now traces the family trees of thousands of gargantuan gourds back generations.

“If a Jack-o’-lantern isn’t your style, use paint, appliqués, and accessories to give your gourds personality,” Stewart suggests.

Pumpkins, squash, zucchini, and other members of the gourd family have a surprising trait: they can take up pollutants from the soil and store them in their edible parts.

At the market, surrounded by gourds and carrots grown in his own garden, Fedir said he had also been jolted awake by the power of the nearby missile strike.

Customers are paying them hundreds—sometimes thousands—of dollars to festoon their homes with gourds of every shape and size.