A new start after 60: I wanted to retire from farming – but never dreamed I would become an artist

‘It’s amazing what you can do with gourds’ … Ingall with a few of his artworks, made from fruit he grew himself. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

It was while touring Mississippi in an old RV that John Ingall and his wife, Jane, first spotted the plant that would change their lives: the hardshell gourd, a plump, squash-like fruit with a thick, woody skin. After that, they saw them almost everywhere they went: carved gourds in porches, hanging gourds, gourds reimagined as lanterns and bird boxes. “I developed an interest,” Ingall says.

Ingall, 74, worked for 45 years as a farmer, but had never seen fruit turned into art before, nor considered himself in the least bit artistic. “I was so involved with farming, I didn’t have time to be. But I thought, ‘I’ll try it.’”