Autumn

We don't have autumn here, as I know it. There is nothing wrong with it, it is just different. Few of the trees change colour, the temperatures drop to the manageable 80s, and you are supposed to put away your white pants after Labor Day. (Why? If the sun is shining and it's 80 degrees, I shall wear whatever I like!). What we do have, in common with everywhere else in the US is a positive profusion of squash. Squash, pumpkins, gourds wherever you look, and very attractive they are too. Squash comes in shapes round and elongated, scalloped and pear-shaped with flesh that ranges from golden-yellow to brilliant orange. Most winter squash are vine-type plants whose fruits are harvested when fully mature. They take longer to mature than summer squash and are best harvested once the cool weather of fall sets in. They can be stored for months in a cool basement-hence the name 'winter' squash. A gourd is the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the plant family Cucurbitaceae, to which squash belong. There are edible the gourds, and those non-edible varieties can be used as vessels, musical instruments and for decor. Gourds are believed to be the earliest plant domesticated by man; in Africa, they were used as bowls and bottles (they are still used today to drink yerba maté in South America). The rattling dried seeds inside enable gourds to be used as percussion instruments; even today, gourds are used as resonating chambers on certain stringed instruments and drums, especially in the Caribbean.