Drying Loofah's 101 & A Little Halloween...

You can really pick Loofah at any stage, the ideal way is to let them dry or turn yellow/brown on the vine. As they dry they will become lighter in weight and the skin will pull away from the sponge inside. Feels like a ball that needs some air in it, you know how you can pinch the rubber?You just peel the skin off of the sponge. (excuse the stained fingers, she colored her sister's hair with kool-aid)

Once the skin is all peeled off you will see three chambers inside where the seeds are located.

You can dig the seeds out or

bang the sponge..see the loofah juice? (we love the way our hands feel after having this juice on them) If we would have left the loofah on the vine a little longer it would be dry. I let one turn almost completely brown, when I picked it the skin came off in two pieces, the sponge was dry and the seeds shook right out.

(not pictured) We let water run through the chambers from the water faucet or garden hose to wash out some hard to reach seeds and return the loofah to it's original shape.

Hang to dry, as it dries the last of the seeds will fall out. Reminds me of the Shredded Wheat cereal. If the loofah has dark areas on the sponge you can soak in a mild solution of bleach and water for a few minutes. These sponges can be used for bathing or cleaning. Remember to hang to dry after each use and DO NOT share if you use yours to bathe with. There is also a dry brushing technique, you dry brush your skin upward towards your heart for better circulation and radiant looking skin.

This is NOT even close to the amount of seeds that one loofah produces. Please let me know if you are interested in trying to grow loofah's, I have plenty of seeds to share. They are easy peasy, just need a long growing season (you can start them indoors) and a strong support to climb on. We used some trees, next year we will be using the chain link fence out back.

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I don't really care for Halloween...we do let the girls dress up and drive them around our neighborhood to a few houses though.

Here's our Nerd...

and our Scarecrow.

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Today I am Thankful to share our Loofah experience....and that Halloween is over....