09/05/2026
🧽 Today’s fresh harvest a… sponge? Yep, you read that right! It IS possible to grow a sponge in Wisconsin.
These goofy looking vegetables are called Luffas. You may have seen them used for: exfoliating in the shower, dish scrubbers, in soap blocks, or used in crafts. When they’re young, they’re edible! Stir-fry’s, soups, and fritters for example. Similar to zucchini.
🥒Luffas are a vining tropical/subtropical annual from the cucumber and squash family. Their vines can grow 30-50 feet long with large leaves and bright yellow flowers. They need some sort of way to climb. We used 2 hooped cattle panels, and I think they’re holding on by a prayer. Heavy! Due to being a tropical plant, they LOVE hot, humid, and sunny weather ☀️. While many of us may not have appreciated the wicked heat(🙋🏼♀️), the luffas sure did!
⏰🗓️The problem? Luffas need a long growing season to go from seed to dried and complete. 150-200 days from seed to dried sponge on the vine. Here in zone 4b, our growing season is too short to let the luffas dry out on the vine. The frost will creep in far too early for them to dry ❄️.
🤔 So what do we do? We harvest early! Yes, it is more work to process them, but it’s SO worth it (fun too). Due to our growing season limitations, we pick the luffa gourds when they’re still green, but mature. We peel the outer skin off, clean them out a few times, soak in peroxide, then dry them. It’s very important to remove all the pulp and seeds!
👉🏻 We will be offering these luffas very soon! These sponges are an excellent zero-waste, eco-friendly choice to use however you’d like!
