Harvesting and Using my Luffa September 2021

 

These 3 luffa gourds turned brown between the time I left here on Tuesday last week and today (September 13).  It's supposed to rain a lot over the next day or so, so I decided to cut them.  I can hear the seeds rattling when I shake them.  There are 10 or so more on the vines that are still green.  Luffa has the longest growing season of any vegetable-type plant that I've ever encountered.  I sowed the seed in early spring, and the gourds are just now getting ready to pick.   

  

I cut the ends off them and shook out the seeds.  Not all the seeds fell out, so I'm hoping as they continue to dry the rest will come out when the gourd is shake.  Next I peeled them which is very easy to do.        

September 29.  As the luffas continued to dry out many hundreds of seeds fell out as I shook them.  I couldn't believe how many seeds a luffa contains.  Those seed catalogues should be paying me to take them off their hands!  I bought some soap, scents and molds from Michaels.  And I made little soaps with my luffas.  I sliced the luffa into thin sections and placed the luffa slices into the soap molds.  Then I poured the scented soap (I scented my soaps with cucumber essential oils) into the molds.  Then when I pushed the soaps out of the molds (with the luffa embedded in the soaps) I decorated them with raffia and wheat.  They turned out pretty cute.  I might give them away to my Airbnb guests.  Here are some examples.  From the top view you can't see the luffa, but when you turn over the soap you see this ring of luffa.  And when you bathe with the soap you don't need a wash cloth, you have the luffa!