Diary of My Country life-November 13th, 2025

The original source of this blog: https://www.lotusandmichael.com/blogs/diary-of-my-country-life

11/13/2025 Thursday 39-51F Cloudy

It is supposed to be sunny today--to take advantage of the sun, I rose early, did the laundry, hung it out (yes, I sun-dry my laundry all the time); then I hung the vegetables on the rack as well for them to dry in the sun.

But, after doing all these, the sun hasn’t shone yet. Occasionally it comes out of the clouds, but most of the time it hides behind.

It had been rainy, windy, and freezing cold in the past few days. I am eager to see the sun, to dry out all the damp and cold. 

It was a busy gardening day yesterday—I worked the whole morning to clean up my vegetable bed; then in the afternoon I built a new drying rack and started my experiment of making sun-dried vegetables. The frost fell on the first day of winter (according to the solar term) killed my loofah and tomato plants. I am always amazed by the solar term; since I could remember, it never failed me, and I use it to guide all my gardening—time and action. So when my loofahs and tomatoes were killed, I wasn’t surprised; the plants had lived much longer than last year and provided me a lot of delicious fruit and joys this season, so I had no regret.

Especially loofah; it is an amazing plant. Though my parents planted loofah every year in my childhood, I didn’t really understand and pay any attention to it. This is the first year I planted loofah myself. I sowed two seeds this April; they all germinated, though one grew much smaller than the other one. Starting from mid-August till the plants were killed, in total I harvested about four or five dozens of loofah gourds--some I gifted to my neighbors, and we ate the rest of them (yesterday I cooked the last batch of the loofah gourds for dinner); plus another sixteen old loofah gourds I harvested for loofah sponges.

I didn’t really mean to keep so many gourds for sponges. But they were very smart about hiding themselves among the dense leaves. Even though we worked very hard to try to find all the mature ones, there were always missed ones; and during their peak season in September, the mature gourds could get overgrown almost overnight; next day when I by chance saw them, they winked at me playfully. I reached out for them, their skin already turned hard and became inedible. That’s why I got so many old ones and had to keep them on the vines for sponges, despite the fact that they would hold back the growth of other younger ones.

When I complained about my overgrown gourds to my parents during a video call, my father said that it happened all the time; it’s the trick that loofah liked to play so they could let their seeds secretly be mature for next generation.

Ok, my father’s words made me feel much better—it’s not because I was too careless, but because the loofahs were too smart.

Now the benefit from having so many old loofah gourds is that I will have a lot of sponges. Based on what I knew since I was a kid, loofah was for culinary purposes (you can refer to our YouTube video “Eat Loofah? My Three Dishes”); almost every household in my hometown used the sponge for washing cookware and dinnerware. Except for these two functions, I knew nothing else about loofah. Then during the same video call, my parents mentioned that I also could harvest loofah water which was very useful for cosmetic use. 

So I Googled online. Here was what I found: 

“Loofah water, or luffa water, which is the liquid extract from the luffa plant, acts as a natural skin toner and moisturizer, while the fibrous loofah sponge is used for exfoliation and to improve circulation. While the liquid is used for its hydrating and soothing properties, the sponge is used to gently scrub away dead skin cells, promote a healthy glow, and help with blood flow. 

• Hydrating and moisturizing: It is commonly used as a natural facial toner and moisturizer to keep skin hydrated, notes Wikipedia.

• Soothing: The liquid has soothing properties for the skin.

• Popular in skincare: It is a popular ingredient in many skincare products, especially in certain regions like Taiwan. “

I was thrilled--everybody wants to be prettier and get “a healthy glow” 😊. Thus I no longer complained about my old loofah gourds and collecting loofah water was added onto my agenda. 

Now the loofah water has been collected, bottled, and stored in my fridge. Every morning and evening after washing my face, I apply it a bit. In dry seasons like winter, I appreciate it very much for the soothing feeling which it brings to my skin. And it has a natural pleasant, grassy aroma which is like fresh cucumber.

But loofah water wasn’t my only new discovery. While I was peeling the old guard for sponge, I noticed that I could get strings from the skin which actually were thin yet strong and could be very useful. So I saved some and used them to hang my loofah sponges—they went beautifully together; they had the same source.

Yesterday after removing my two dead loofah plants from the vegetable bed, I rolled them tight to save the space. During this whole procedure, a pleasant smell of the vines surrounded me—it was very different from tomato plants. Though they were all killed by the frost on the same night, tomato vines had an odor of death. I love my tomatoes; they tasted sweet and juicy and I made my best tomato sauce ever with them; but here I had to admit that my tomato plants didn’t end their lives with as much dignity as my loofah plants.

Since the vines still smelt so good; when I rolled and folded them up, the vines were strong and supple—no wonder that they could hold up the plants’ massive sizes and the heavy fruit. An idea occurred to my mind: If so, perhaps I could use them for tying up like ropes.

To test whether this idea was workable or not, I cut several pieces of the vines, knotted them, and hung a basket under each loop. Again, they looked beautiful and at least so far work well. I am not sure how heavy a load they can bear; I plan to use them for hanging my dried vegetables which will be light.

Therefore, the loofah vines which would be dumped now are bundled in my garage. Gradually they will dry out and hopefully will be even stronger so when spring comes and time for me to plant my dear loofah again, I can use these vines to tie up a beautiful loofah trellis—come from loofah, be used for loofah. So loofah for loofah, a simple, sustainable, completed life circle.

I feel very lucky and happy about these discoveries; I believe I will find out more about loofah—they are too amazingly valuable! If one day I can choose to be a vegetable, I want to be a loofah plant—my shining yellow flowers swaying in breezes; my fruit hiding behind the large leaves; the liquid running in my vines clean and soothing; and most importantly, every part of me is versatile and useful.