Gourd spring meeting could lead to festival

MOSES LAKE - A spring meeting held by the state's fledgling gourd society just might lead to a new annual festival in Moses Lake.

The Washington State Gourd Society Mu Chapter first biannual spring meeting takes place in the Huck Fuller Building of the Grant County Fairgrounds beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Society President Myrna Grigsby estimated 125 people would be in attendance during the weekend, with participants coming from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California and Montana.

Grigsby said several cities were considered for the meeting.

"Number one, it's centrally located and number two, when we came to Moses Lake to check things out, you guys treated us like we were pretty special," Grigsby said. "So that was the deciding factor."

The society's fall meeting will take place on the western side of the state.

"This meeting is to enlighten (residents) on what you can do with gourds," Grigsby said. "A lot of people will be very surprised that you can produce a fine piece of art worth thousands of dollars from one gourd. We hope to educate them on that, introduce them to the area gourd growers and just offer what we have in the way of education and information."

The chapter's teachings include lessons on safety.

"Gourd safety is a big factor," Grigsby said. "Because when the gourd is opened up, it is toxic."

The weekend event is free and open to the public.

Saturday's events include gourd technique demonstrations all day long, a gourd art exhibit, networking amongst "gourders," door prizes and raffle tickets and local gourd growers selling their products.

Saturday's events last until 5 p.m.

Sunday includes a Gourd Group Breakfast and visits to local gourd farms.

Moses Lake resident Dennis Conley first began growing gourds about eight years ago, but said he had both his biggest acreage and best yielding crop in 2007. He and the Tonnemakers will be selling gourds in a joint effort at the Tonnemaker farm on Dodson Road this weekend, he said.

"I have been in the potato business all my life," Conley explained. "It's always been so odd about how potatoes grow here in the Columbia Basin. If you could make the perfect growing area in the world, you wouldn't miss Moses Lake by very far. Why is that, and are there other crops that will behave otherwise? Right here we grow potatoes with the same varieties, the same fertilizer, the same John Deere tractor as they do in Idaho and we get back virtually twice the yield per acre."

As he approached retirement, Conley was looking for other crops which might behave uniquely to the agriculture area as potatoes. He had some prior experience growing squash, and his sister encouraged him to start growing gourds she could sell at her farmers market stand in Coeur d'Alene.

"One thing led to another, and here I am now being a gourd farmer," Conley said with a chuckle.

Grigsby and Conley both said the society's goal is to hold an annual state gourd festival.

Grigsby planned discussions with fairgrounds staff this weekend, and said things are on target with plans for the festival to debut in 2010, allowing the society to plan, raise funds and draw in teachers and vendors nationwide.

Moses Lake is still "very much so" in the running to host such a festival, she said.

Such festivals are usually hosted by a gourd farmer, Conley said.

"I think Moses Lake, once these people start figuring out we can grow gourds over here, certainly the Washington state people will say, 'This makes sense that we're not going to have to go to California to get gourds,'" he said.

Many gourd artists want to be able to see the gourds they purchase, which is difficult when they purchase online, Conley noted.

Artists also like to buy their gourds cleaned through a cleaning process, while most Columbia Basin growers sell them as they come out of the field.

"So that's probably a step in the future," Conley said.

The meeting this weekend has become a quasi-festival of sorts, he added.

"I have the impression they bring in a fair amount of people from outside the area," he said. "This area, here again, regionally, we're unique and I would suspect you would draw people from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, maybe even Canada, because this is about the furthest north latitude you can grow these large, hard-shell gourds. Geographically, we have somewhat of a competitive advantage. I'm just amazed at the number of people out there that are gourd artists. They will go many miles to buy a gourd."

For more information, visit the society Web site at www.wagourdsociety.org.