Are BHG's edible?

[Eeyore]

I've got Birdhouse gourds growing oin my fence and the Vietnamese neighbous have asked for seeds. I think they believe they are edible, I don't want to give them seeds if they aren't edible. Can somebody tell me if they are?

[OGrubber]

All squash are edible, Lyn - some are just considered better for eating.

To our way of thinking, gourds are generally too thin fleshed, stringy, and tasteless [comparatively speaking] to be used as food when fully developed, but, they are edible. I imagine at the baby stage they would be much more palatable.

Perhaps your Vietnamese neighbours have a particular dish/use in mind. They use a lot of veggies that we think of as "just ornamental".

[Eeyore]

Thanks Inge, I knew you could answer my question.

[Mervyn]

If you find a recipe , post it, I'm curios to see what they do with it

I did a little googling and all I could find was instruction on how to make them into Birdhouses

[Eeyore]

That was all I could find when I googled too. It wasn't entirely clear as to whether they were edible.

[orchidguy]

Hiya Lyn
Your BHG (Lagenaria siceraria) can indeed be used in culinary dishes. The immature fruit can be boiled, steamed, fried, used in curries and made into fritters. The pulp around the seed is purgative and shouldn't be eaten. Leaves and young shoots can be steamed and eaten as an alternative to common greens.
Medicinally a poultice of the crushed leaves are applied to the forehead and is said to relieve headaches. The fruit rind and stem "bark" is used as a diuretic, and a poultice of boiled seed have been used for boils and to treat mouth ulcers.
These are holistic practices and one should not use this unless full knowledge of any side-effects are studied.

[Eeyore]

The neighbours being Vietnamese probably are aware of this. Thanks Orchidguy!