Lesbians Who Love Squash – Gourd Girls by Priscilla Wilson

Ok, maybe they don’t love squash but they have made gourds into their lifes work. Gourds do come from various forms of squash after all!

Who are these crazy women you ask? You did ask, right? Well, they’re author, gourd grower, gourd artist and gourd seller Priscilla Wilson and her gourd loving, growing and selling life partner Janice Lymburner. Their memoir is, appropriately, Gourd Girls. It’s an accounting of how they met, how they came to live in the mountains of eastern Georgia, how they came out as lesbians – eventually – to the “town”, such as it is, and how they came to farm, carve and sell gourds for a satisfying, fulfilling living.

If you don’t think gourds make for a very interesting memoir topic, you’re in for a treat. Really. You’ll laugh along with these two wonderful women as they stumble and bumble through their early attempts at farming to raise an acceptable, usable, carve-able (I guess “carvable” isn’t a word…) crop. Gourds as art! Who knew? Priscilla did.

In love, in life, in nature and in business these two take the artistic road and, often, the road less traveled. I would say that they’ve become a success story by not knowing what they didn’t know and just going ahead and plunging in to all of the things they felt would bring them happiness and fulfillment… and maybe a bit of cash to live on.

I really don’t want to go into a lot of detail about this book. I don’t want to give anything at all away. If you look up their website, GourdPlace.com, you’ll find out just a tiny bit more about them but this book really tells their full story. Now I’m hoping for the ‘what’s been going on since 2005?’ sequel!

I know one thing for sure, the next time I’m in Atlanta – or anywhere in northern Georgia – I’m going to their store. I just have to meet them. And do you want to know something else? I’m really not a fan of squash!