Gourds

My grandfather John Ciesla emigrated from Poland in 1909 at the age of 16, and by 1928 was married and living in Pomona, California. He owned and operated the roadside Sunkist Trading Post, where he grew and sold gourds and cacti. He gave himself the title of “The World’s Largest Gourd Grower”.

In 1937, he wrote the book “Decorating Gourds for Pleasure and Profit”. While going through archives from my old computer, I found these are scans of the booklet. I’ll replace with higher resolutions scans (that are actually readable) in the future, as well as other memorabilia.

 

More to follow in the future…