Loofahs
A failed experiment in boycotting store bought sponges
Last winter, as I began to think of life without the big corporations I rely on for cleaning supplies (and everything else), I happened upon an Instagram video of a woman growing loofahs. I watched as she plucked her loofahs from her beautiful garden arch and then processed them to use as sponges.
Two thoughts popped into my head:
Loofahs don’t come from the ocean?
I can grow dozens of loofahs and never have to buy a sponge from a big box store again!
The instagrammer has been lost to my algorithm that now favors videos of baking and ancient axe restoration (and no, I don’t know how I ended up there) but I remember she lived in the south and grew more loofahs than she knew what to do with. I dreamed of such loofah riches. So, I brought the loofah idea to The Quad Gardening Committee and everyone was on board. We started the seeds in late winter/early spring and they thrived!
Then, when we could begin planting outside, we transferred them to our raised beds with an arch and I eagerly waited for them to take over and start producing. The plants struggled initially but did eventually begin to grow up the arches but not a single loofah appeared and we gave them up for dead. And then, much to our surprise, a single loofah appeared in the middle of September. I was so excited but I also knew it would be a race against time—would the loofah mature before the first frost? Thus began Loofah Watch 2025 on our Instagram account.
Last Thursday, I picked the FOUR loofahs on our vines to beat the forecasted frost the following day. They were not mature but I read that you can bake them and then harvest the sponges. So, that’s what I did.






I was pretty excited about our small yield and began to research loofahs so that we could increase our yield next year and I learned some very interesting things I wish I’d known before growing them:
They take 200 days to fully mature.
They are a tropical plant.
You may recall that we live in Minnesota. Suddenly, our loofah journey made a lot more sense. I shared this information with the Gardening Committee and suggested that perhaps different plants might better serve our space and energy.
But we will each get a couple of usable loofahs, though I must confess that I was drying them on a cookie sheet and, while kitten-proofing our place for a feline visitor, I put them in the oven and forgot about them…until yesterday when I preheated the oven to 400 degrees to make cookies. Now, we have roasted loofahs and I have some regrets.
What fun thing should we grow next year? Bananas? Pineapples? Coffee beans?
Pictures from around The Quad…











Such a great post!
1. Loofahs are grown on trees?! I echo your surprise at this. How COOL!
2. You're absolutely hilarious! I LOL'd a few times, especially at "Now, we have roasted loofahs and I have some regrets."
Please keep writing. Your blog is a panacea in these times. ❤️
I had no idea that was how loofas grow. They look like a kind of cucumber. What a fun project to experiment with.