Loofah

Some days back, I was amused no end to find some loofah sponges drying in the wooden walkways. When I started the farm, I admittedly dreamed of harvesting truckloads of coconuts or making our coffee beans well-known, but never did it cross my mind we will ever come up with loofah sponges!


Yes, they're from our own produce! I do have an inkling that it comes from a plant but it's different if you walk through your yard, knowing you'll find vegetable patches with gourds, but instead you stumble upon a bath accessory.


Believe it or not but loofahs are mature patóla (sponge gourd), the same vegetable we eat with misuă soup. To cook the gourds, you have to pick them while they're still young. But if you leave them on the vine until they mature and let the skin dry up, you'll end up with the sponge that we know. That's it! It's that simple.


It's awesome that at this age, there are still a lot of simple and mundane things that we do not realize are actually very elementary. I grew up seeing these packaged and labeled and marketed and distributed. Conversely, the locals might wonder why my curiosity is so piqued by something that they actually consider wastage (from patola that was not picked). Wait until they see I actually blogged about it!