Exfoliating

I am sure I have mentioned it previously this summer, but I grew luffa this year. It was my fun think to grow in the garden this year to see if I could and see how it turned out. Luffa are the sponge like things people use to scrub with in the shower and other places. A lot of people don't know that luffa is a gourd, it is in the cucumber family. They grow in vine form and the vine gets really big. I grew them on a hooped cattle panel and they took up all the space on it and then started spreading over the garden. The vine was really pretty and made nice yellow flowers, that attracted not so nice bees. Here is a little photo tour of the progression of the luffa throughout the summer.

This is the vine growing on the cattle panel


This is the luffa gourd growing on the vine


After they mature, they turn brown and dry out on the vine and that is when you harvest them. We have been harvesting 2-3 every few days for the past few weeks. It took me a few times picking to figure out when the best time to harvest was. Here is what they look like when you harvest them.


To get to the sponge, you peel the skin off kind of like a banana (b-a-n-a-n-a-s). Then you wash it with a water hose with a strong stream to get all the sap like stuff out. And here is what you get.



You can put them in some bleach water for a few minutes after peeling them and then rinse them if you want them to look nice and like they do in the store or you can leave them natural which is a little more brown color and has some spots and stuff. To cure them you leave them in the sunlight for a few days until they harden up. Most individual gourd make two sponges, we probably have 14 or so sponges so far and will have at least that many more. Here is some of the finished products.



Here is Margo demonstrating the use of the luffa.


Some of you might be getting one of these as a gift. I guess you could interpret getting one two ways. Either we think you are a friend or we think you need to take a bath.