Growing and Processing Luffa Gourds!

Every year we grow luffa gourds.  This is perhaps the easiest thing to grow.  Even if you don't have a green thumb, luffas will grow and flourish.  They take zero maintenance.  All you have to do is provide them some sort of trellis to grow on.  They will inevitably vine to try to take over your garden, but you can clip off the vines and compost them or feed them to your animals.  The leaves are large and sometimes hide the gourds.  You can see a big gourd in the center left below.

Luffas are gourds that we make bath sponges out of.  I harvest them as they start to turn brown or a little yellow on the vine.  They continue to produce and produce until the first freeze knocks them out of commission.  Here is the last batch of them that I pulled a little early, but I had to as the freeze killed the plant.  I'm leaving them on the patio to dry a little bit.

When you feel the outer covering getting a little dry, you simply peel it off.  It peels right off rather easily.

Once the outer covering is removed (shown below), the inner sponge is revealed.  I'll leave it in the sun for a few days to fully dry, flipping it over in the process to ensure it dries evenly and completely.

But we're not quite finished yet.  Luffas produce a plethora of seeds.  These things are serious about reproducing themselves.  When fully dry, you can shake the gourd and hear many seeds inside.  I place a bucket underneath the gourd and shake and shake and shake some more.

You end up with a LOT of seeds.  I use a few to replant for the next crop year, but I always have way too many for my own personal use.  If anyone needs any, let me know and I'll give you all you can handle.

Now, if you notice in the two photos above, the gourds are a drab brown color.  We use these luffas as bath sponges and find that they are more aesthetically pleasing when they are a lighter color and all cleaned up.  I'll generally get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with water and add some bleach to it.  Then I'll place a batch of luffas soaking in the bucket overnight.

Most of the luffas are about 2 feet long, so after the first night's soak in the bleach-water solution, I'll flip them over to bleach the other side.  You can see the difference that the bleaching makes below.  That makes a big difference, and the top will be bleached just the same once soaked for another night.

"Let's do this" is right!

Here is one batch of the finished product:

Since they are quite large as you can tell by me holding one below, they are too big to use for a bath sponge.  I like to cut them in half.

Tricia and I each have one in the shower.  We wet the sponge, rub soap on it and use it in place of a washrag.  The luffa is a great exfoliant and is reslient and long-lasting.  You can freshen it up after using it a bit by soaking it in a bleach solution.  I've heard of people cutting the luffa into disks and when making soap, they pour the soap in the middle and let it dry.  I haven't tried that yet.  Luffas are great to give to family and friends as gifts.  Scrub-a-dub-dub.