Did you know you could grow your own luffa (AKA Loofah)? Well, surprise surprise, you can! Luffa are in the gourd family and crawl on a vine that sometimes reaches up to 30 feet in length. Luffa are edible when young and only a few inches long, you could eat the one being highlighted in this picture. At this stage they're kinda like okra, most often used in Chinese and Vietnamese dishes. When allowed to continue growing toward maturity they become increasingly fibrous.
When growing them for use as a bath sponge, which is what Meredithe is doing with them, you can let them grow until the first frost hits them. They take a while to grow, requiring 150 to 200 warm days to reach full maturity. Once hit by frost, however, they become susceptible to rot. We're going to let them grow until the end of fall, and hopefully time it perfectly so we can just peel the skin off and enjoy our new bath sponges!
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