2014–2016 Luffa • Luffah • Loofah Growing Adventure

[applestar]

...thinking about this, it seems to stand to reason that, in addition to flavor, eating varieties would be selected for NOT developing fibrous sponge for a long time, thus allowing the fruits to keep eating quality for an extended time. Whereas, to grow for sponges, it would be desirable, especially in my northern climate, that they hurry up and develop the fibers into hard/inedible sponges....

[applestar]

Cleaned another one. This is the one that had started to yellow outside, then was hung to finish inside, so it was quite a bit yellowed, and when I ripped a small hole and peeked, the sponge had shrunken as much as 1/4" away inside the skin.

But it had some flesh in the neck part that had not broken down and had become browned --MAJOR pain to work out of the sponge, and I had to rip it a bit. Darker than the last one for sure, which measured 15 inches after drying. This one is still wet and is 14 inches long measured from the clothespin. More sinker seeds than floaters this time, but NONE was completely black -- what's that about?



...I don't know if it will be good for anything, but I saved the first and 2nd rinse water. IF I get around to it, I'm going to simmer them to pasteurize, and try making some relatively harmless/easy body products with them like shampoo and conditioner or add to handsoap, etc.

...otherwise, I'll just water some container plants with them. Last time, I watered the peppers and figs that were fruiting.

[applestar]

Luffah #3 -- this one was still mostly green, but I accidentally cracked the skin while kneading it, then it started to leak (still too juicy inside), then I was forced to process it because some ants that managed to find their way in to escape from the last couple of morning's freeze found it this morning.

Since the rind was still pretty green and juicy, I gave the pieces -- which generally peeled off, though not quite releasing as easily as I've gotten used to -- to the worms in the vermicompost bin. They tend to like squash, so maybe they will like luffah as well.

You can see the neck was not well developed -- very soft fibers, and there were only a small amount of sinker seeds:

[applestar]

So, Thnaksgiving, etc. schtuff kept me from getting around to processing the next two luffah until they were externally dried out. Then they started to bloom with spots of white mold, forcing me to wipe them down with rubbing alcohol and tossing them in the garage...

...I FINALLY got the chance to work on them today and they were in sorry state -- I thought they were completely ruined. But after two soaking in Oxy-clean, changing the solution once, they came out OK. whew!

[applestar]

After dealing with the condition of the two yesterday, I decided to process 4 more luffah today. One was starting to spoil at the neck but the lower portion was still very green and hard (this was the last one harvested) -- the interior sponge had not started to shrink away and skin had not started crackle when pressed -- and the skin would not peel off like the others. I decided this one needed to be boiled. I did oxyclean them all but only one soaking was needed.


...middle two are the ones from yesterday.

[applestar]

Cleaned the last of the big luffah today.



Now, I just have two medium and one medium-small green ones left. None are as well developed and probably only have smallish usable fibrous sponge in the lower half of the fruits. But I'm hoping they will be softer and perhaps even suitable for face use.