If you have spent most of your life with the impression that Loofahs are a kind of sea segments and that these scratching natural scrubbers are the last thing you would like to use on your body every day, you are not the only one. But in fact, the Luffa Aegyptiaca (often known as Loofah in the US) is the taxonomic name of a kind of gourd that grows on land, and it is a genetic descendant of the wild cucumber. What is more, if it is grown locally with minimal processing, it is enough soft enough for not only your skin, but also many other applications.
What is a Luffa?
In the United States you would be apologized because you are not familiar with this unique plant, because Luffa is much more popular in Asia and tropical regions. In fact, very few farmers grow the factory commercial for the American market – there are only two farms in the country and, according to Brooklynn Gamble, Farm Supervisor at The Luffa Farm In Nipomo, California, there are both in the state on the west coast. But the plant is not endemic for countries in the distant north, so cultivating it requires a lot of care and attention.
Fortunately, Luffa -Boer Deanne Coon was willing to offer both, and that is how the Luffa Farm was born in 2000 after growing the plant as part of the experiment of a friend of a friend and then experimenting for almost two decades. Thanks to the location of Nipomo in a definitely non-tropical climate, Coon had to take into account things like cooler seasons (she grows in greenhouses), coastal winds (also greenhouses) and Gophers (she grows plants in pots instead of directly in the ground).
Now semi-retired, she and a team run the small farm with avocado and citrus trees and decorated with quirky adapted garden art. They also offer tours during open hours, so that visitors can learn something about Luffa.
Guests stroll through a steaming greenhouse where long green gourds look like zucchini hang on trellises in impressive quantities. They learn that although some Asian cultures raise smaller varieties that are green, tender and edible when young, it is not popular as a culinary ingredient in the US and when they inform why crispy brown gourds are still hanging on the vine, they learn that Luffa is not harvested until you think it is dead. “If it is completely brown and dry, we cut it off the vine,” Gamble explains.
Only then, and after it is peeled, it will finally be recognizable as the fibrous exfoliating sponge that many know and love.
It is what is inside that matters
At that point, however, time and unique biological functions that are not visible to the naked eye come. It takes six to nine months after planting Luffa seeds before they are ready to harvest, Gamble explains (longer in the winter, shorter in the summer). It only takes three to four months before slim green baby passes start to sprout from reaching vines and the male flowers that are needed for pollination for flowering.
Once that happens and pollination is completed, the pumpkin is technically edible and ripe for picking. The inner fruit is usually slimy like Okra, so it’s a bit of an acquired taste. However, there are certainly recipes from all over the world that take up this food group.
But the Luffa farm is not busy with unpopular products, so the fruit is left to the vine where it can become so large and heavy as the cut vines can handle, Gamble continues. As happens, the indoor plants fibers such as the veins that feed water and nutrients on the seeds, the care of this is the most important guideline of the plant. Those veins become thicker and poet to feed the seeds as the gourd grows.
When the gourd becomes too large – over the size of an oversized zucchini – the vine, which can grow 30 to 40 feet in any direction, cuts the water supply to the entire fruit to redistribute resources to other plants on the vine that still grow. “While the vine sucks the water and recycles, [the gourd] Dries, “Gamble describes. When that happens, instead of rotting like most other products, the Luffa turns from deep green to yellow to brown and hard.
When that happens, the gourd feels light as air because all liquid and vegetable matter has dried up, so that only a fiber-like cellulose is lagging behind in the Nu-hard-like skin. That’s when it’s time to harvest. The skin is cracked and the seeds, which can be replanted, are shaken out. Harvesters soaked the entire gourd in water for five minutes, so that the thin layer of vegetable dub on the bottom rehydrates and then “the skin so that it slips right away,” says Gamble.
What remains is an airy, light, spongy Spidery network made of vegetable fibers that are an excellent natural multifunctional sponge that is foldable if it is dry and even softer when it is wet. That is what makes it such an attractive option for skin care enthusiasts.
Not all Luffa have been drawn up
If that doesn’t sound like the rigid, compressed Luffa that you see for sale in your local health food store, you’re not wrong. Most Luffa are imported, and because they are a factory, they must be treated in advance to ensure that they will not transport bugs, illness or other absenteeism, Gamble explains.
“Especially those heat treatments are which damage damage the fibers,” she says. It reduces the otherwise light and loose cellulose structures and makes the Luffa hard, compact and less flexible. By jeopardizing the structure, it also becomes more susceptible to bacterial growth, because they do not dry out so easily or completely between applications.
Luffa grew in the US, such as that of the Luffa Farm, nothing needs to be treated with nothing because they are not imported from abroad. They just get a quick rinse before they are sold. As a result, they are softer, more pleasant on the skin, last more versatile and longer. One can take up to a year of regular use. Moreover, because they are very porous, “they do not create the same breeding ground for bacteria,” Gamble offers.
A plant with unlimited use
But exfoliating is not what these plants are good for. On the contrary, Gamble says that there are many applications for Luffa. Softer varieties can be used as a facial sponge instead of a washcloth. They can even be thrown into the washing machine for a deep clean, although you have to avoid putting them in the dryer. They make excellent washing -ups and potentially. Gamble uses one on her stainless steel stove.
A wet Luffa also quickly makes work of washing your car, especially when it comes to scrubbing bugs from your grill, Gamble recommends. The fibers do not even scratch the finish. They are even used as Insulation in mudstone houses and when industrial filters And maybe a porous hydrogel of sunlight has inspired that that could Possibly purify water. The best part: untreated Luffa sponges are compostable, making them an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic sponges.
“They are as unique as a plant,” says Gamble, a real multifunctional and sustainable natural product whose use goes much further than bathing time peeling. And yes, it is one that grows on the land, not under water.
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