Saturday, August 20, 2005
Gourd Cleaning/Curing Solutions
How do I clean my mate?
First of all the mate gourd should never, of course be put in a dishwasher, and one should never use soap with it. That said it leaves us a few options for cleaning. Mostly we just rinse ours out with water. If a gourd is left with yerba for several days, moist, and begins to mold... we rinse it and scrub it inside with water only--and then coat the inside with baking soda. This can then, after it dries, be rinsed out with vinegar. (Marisa loves this process, because it has the effect of powerful chemical reaction--whether the effect is as powerful as the chemical reaction is left for scientific study.)
After this you can rinse it out with water again. Rinsing, scrubbing and thoroughly drying your gourd with a paper towel or cloth will help keep the mold from growing. The cloth will turn green, but this is from the yerba residue--not the mold. If you are more careful than we are you will never leave one of your gourds with wet yerba for long periods of time.
Also--as much as we become attached to any one of our mate gourds the fact remains that gourds were not meant to last forever.
First of all the mate gourd should never, of course be put in a dishwasher, and one should never use soap with it. That said it leaves us a few options for cleaning. Mostly we just rinse ours out with water. If a gourd is left with yerba for several days, moist, and begins to mold... we rinse it and scrub it inside with water only--and then coat the inside with baking soda. This can then, after it dries, be rinsed out with vinegar. (Marisa loves this process, because it has the effect of powerful chemical reaction--whether the effect is as powerful as the chemical reaction is left for scientific study.)
After this you can rinse it out with water again. Rinsing, scrubbing and thoroughly drying your gourd with a paper towel or cloth will help keep the mold from growing. The cloth will turn green, but this is from the yerba residue--not the mold. If you are more careful than we are you will never leave one of your gourds with wet yerba for long periods of time.
Also--as much as we become attached to any one of our mate gourds the fact remains that gourds were not meant to last forever.
