Nest Egg Gourd is one of those old-fashioned heirlooms that is both practical and fun to grow. Once common on late-19th and early-20th-century farms, these vigorous vines were often trained along fences, where they produced astonishing numbers of smooth, white, egg-shaped gourds—so convincing they look like freshly gathered eggs piled in a bowl. And convincing they are. We learned that firsthand when one hill yielded hundreds of gourds in a single season. That summer, we had young hens just coming into lay, and we used these “eggs” to train them to use their nesting boxes instead of, say, an upturned bucket in the darkest corner of the barn. They worked perfectly—so well, in fact, that we fooled ourselves more than once, thinking we’d found the first eggs from the new flock. Come fall, that one hill yielded the most fruitful Easter Egg hunt ever, with each kid lugging in a huge basketful of gourds to be dried and later used for crafts. I'm still finding them—behind the couch, under beds—I guess the egg hunt is mine now. Anyway, if you are looking for a rare heirloom that is practical, productive, and so much fun to grow, Nest Egg Gourd is a great pick. Seed stock generously shared with us by renowned seed preservationist, John Coykendall. Seed savers please take note that this variety is of the species C. pepo and should be isolated from pumpkins, zucchini, etc. when grown for seed. Approximately 90 days to harvest. Each packet contains a minimum of 25 seeds.
