MÉRIDA.- The gourd (jícaro in some countries) is a container for food, traditionally made with the fruit of the tree of the same name (crescentia you hear scientific name).
For the days of Faithful Deceased las gourds are used to place offerings such as chocolate, pozole, atole or xec in the altars of families.
Although the custom of using the gourds as containers for food, there are those who paint and decorate them to sell them as crafts.
On the occasion of the upcoming festivities for Day of the Deadwe share the process that must be followed to make gourds at home.
Day of the Dead in Yucatán: How to make gourds at home?
Gourd fruit harvest
Get the fruit fresh, and make sure they are ripe. It is best to have a plant at home and thus learn to identify when they are ripe and ready for the process.
Since not everyone can have or has one at home gourd bushit is recommended that you buy the fruits or ask for some pieces as gifts where you see a copy of this sacred tree for the Mayans.
Cut in half
Once the fruit has been harvested, you must split it in half: tie a thread around, starting from the part where it was hanging from the tree. With a pointed object, such as a nail, shave along the entire length of the thread and, immediately after, begin to cut very carefully with a segueta.
What is recommended when leaving gourd fruit is to stop sawing when you feel that you have reached the pulp and go rotating the sphere until returning to the starting point. The pulp can be finished cut with a knife or with the thread that was used to mark.
Cooking the gourds with lime
Once the two halves of the fruit have been obtained, there are two options: before cook with lime, remove the pulp with a spoon and leave it in a place in the house so that it decomposes and get the seeds, or, if you are not going to obtain seeds, cook the halves with everything and pulp so that removing it is faster.
Final cleaning
Once the halves of the gourd and removed the pulp, you must clean them completely: continue scraping lightly with a spoon.
“Sanding” with ciricote
When we see that the shells are already free of pith, with washed ciricote leaves the interior several times. Ciricote leaves, being rough, They work like sandpaper and by frequently washing the gourds with them you will obtain a smoother and whiter surface.
Drying the gourds in the sun
The gourds are now clean and smooth inside. What follows is place them in the sun to Dry them and obtain their characteristic color.
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