1.)     Jeff Menzies – Toronto artist and instrument maker. Specialty – Banjos & bass fiddles

2.)     ”Unconventional Art” Steve Genereaux will be bringing a fabulous array of his work & knowledge. Steve works in many mediums, gourds only being one.

3.)     Sea Grass Baskets – Ursula will be back again this year with her beautiful hand-made sea grass baskets.

4.)     Paul Ross – Chalet Wood Crafts – Artist & wood-turner. He will be demonstrating and will be certain to have a captive audience.

5.)     Cathy Siroski from The Rubber Room – (Don’t you just love that name!) She will be demonstrating rubber-stamping and card making and will have lots of stamps for sale!

6.)     Linda Smith from Bee-Wearables - A painter who has taken it a step further with beautiful hand-painted watches and clothing.

7.)     John Proctor & Dianna Stahle – If you are looking for great embellishments and other gourd items this is the booth for you. John will also be teaching a 1-day drum-making workshop at Gourd Fest.

8.)     Thompson’s Woodcarving – Bridget & Moe are not only a delight but also carry the best wood burning and carving tools imaginable.

 9.) Northern Dipper – Gourds, books, pine needles, dyes and more!

Your vines should be growing leaps and bounds if you are having a long hot summer. For those areas that are experiencing a lot of rain you may notice that your stems are splitting. There is nothing you can do about this; only cross your fingers that the sun will come out and that your vines will survive.

This is the time where you should be out at night pollinating. If you find that you have many male flowers and not too many females check out that main vine. Just follow it along from the ground if possible and cut the tip using a sharp Exactor knife. This will cause more growth in the laterals or side vines where the female flowers are.

The flower abundance also depends on variety. For example we have so many female Apple gourd flowers yet the Cannonball flowers are very slow to come out. Somehow it always seems to work out in the end.

As you can see from the picture we use paintbrushes attached to a long stick. There is a crew every night in the field and if we all had to bend we would soon be experiencing bad backs!

The gourd field is lovely in the evening. The air is fresh and cool and it is a great spot to relax and gather one’s thoughts and still get something accomplished. At Gourd Fest Peter will be giving field tours so if you are here don’t be shy – ask questions and you will receive very good answers. He is a great tour guide!

At Northern Dipper…