A Large Load of Loofahs

After the first freeze burned back all the non-winter crops in the garden, we quickly picked all the edible produce to bring inside and eat, process, or freeze.  All except for one crop - our loofah gourds. I had forgotten about them.  They grow like kudzu and their vines took over the back half of the garden, threatening to take over the okra plants all summer like tentacles of an octopus that I constantly had to pull off and reposition.

The freeze had burned back all the leaves of the loofah and the leaves and vines which held them were brown and dying, but there were lots of loofahs still on the vines.  I normally leave them on the vines until the skin feels like a football - leathery and kind of loose.  Then I peel the skin off, exposing the sponge-like thing inside.  These were a little under-ripe, but I picked them off the vine and piled them up against the fence rather than let them sit out in the weather and risk decomposing. It is amazing to think that all these came off of one plant.  Even more amazing to think that each of the gourds contain hundreds of seeds.

Gobs of Gourds

I brought them inside and stacked them in a pile near my workbench.  Benjamin said they looked like snakes.  I wanted them to dry for a few days before trying to peel them.

The pile of soon to be scrubbing sponges

A few days later I pulled a bench outside on a perfect bluebird day and commenced peeling them. All the loofah gourd skins will be put back into the garden soil.  Most of the loofahs were pretty easy to peel.  Some were not ripe and were heavy and not fully formed. Those went into the compost pile.  The bad thing about those were they stained my hands green.  A stain that took a lot of scrubbing to get off.

For the compost pile

Once I had them all peeled, I set them on the air conditioning units to dry.  I'll flip them over until they are completely dried on all sides.

Drying the loofahs

When all was said and done, I had 46 loofahs peeled and drying on top of the a/c units and that doesn't count all of them that I've already harvested and processed. This was a bumper crop of loofahs.  Once they are completely dried, I'll bring them in, shake out all the seeds and soak them in a little bleach-water solution to clean them up.  Then they'll be ready for use for weekly Saturday night bath time.  I kid, I kid...

Hanging out to dry

I've been using one as a bath sponge for over a month now and it is as good as new. If we ever get around to making homemade soap, these loofahs would compliment them perfectly.