Luffas are ready and grown right here in Fryeburg, Maine. Nope, we are not in zone 7 or higher. How did we do this you ask? Well, some of us believe our summers are getting warmer and we think so. If you were here in July you witnessed tomato scalding and days so hot it felt like Florida.
These spongy little things take 180+ days to grow. We start them indoors in our basement under grow lights and transplant them a couple of times to a sunny window before they head outside. They are fragile plants once placed in the ground, so losing them in the beginning is highly likely if your temperatures are unpredictable. Once they find a good spot to bloom, they grow like kudzu. They climb, coil, spread and wrap their little curly tentacles around anything they can hold on to. The blooms are a deep yellow and become a zucchini-esque shape forming the luffa.
You can eat luffa when it is small. We tried. Not so great and yes very fibrous. We wait it out and let them get as large as they want to grow - or can grow in Maine. The first frost will nip any outside luffas so we collect the day before the first frost.
We peel, remove seeds and goop, rinse, and clean each luffa. It’s a messy job. If it is still hot and sunny, they dry outside in the sunshine, otherwise I dry them under heat lamps. The bad spots are removed and seeds are forced out using any method necessary that won’t damage the fibers.
Our family keeps several 3-4” cuts by the kitchen sink to clean eggs and scrub non stick cookware. We keep longer lengths in the shower for a good scrub. It feels great to scrub your body with a luffa after a really dirty day on the farm. I keep a few cut rounds to lightly exfoliate my face with. Secret Tip: Ever used a dry brush? Well try a dry luffa to exfoliate your skin before you shower or before a massage.
Luffa has had bad rap at times. I personally think it started with the invention of the plastic scrubbies. The bad rap was that luffa can grow bacteria. Well, yes it can just like any sponge if you don’t keep it clean. So here’s our tip: soak your luffa in a bowl of white vinegar and water to kill anything nasty and then let it dry in the sunshine or open air. If you need to throw out your luffa, just cut it up and toss it into the compost pile. Remember, plastic scrubbies are cute but they fill up the earth with more trash.