Rain, Cucumbers and Loofahs

It's been wet here.  Really wet.  This is Northern California.  It's not supposed to be this wet.   I thought the spring was going to be a dry one and I've stopped stacking wood, I've changed into the summer curtains and dang it!  I can't get into the woods or the garden.  I was ready for some sunshine!   But ok.  When life gives you lemons... make lemonade.

Well, actually, I made a pot scrubber.

We have a plant called 'wild cucumber' around here.   Actually we have at least two species of  Marah growing.  I've always thought it was such a pretty and interesting vine.  There's something about it's lushness and it's beautiful greenness that screams 'fairy grove' to me.  It seems like it has a bit of magic.

Wild cucumber grows  in really dry places usually.  I find it out on abandoned fences, in old orchards and crawling up grey pines.   It's got this cool, spiny fruit, which is poisonous, actually.

I spied it driving it up my driveway.  I had heard that you could make a nice loofah out of it, but I didn't know how.  I had planned to wait to try it this fall, when the spiky fruit had turned brown, but with all this rain, I needed a project...

So I plucked that thorny little apple.  

And it was thorny!  Really thorny.  I was wishing I had worn gloves.  And I had no idea how I was going to peel it.

So I plopped it in a pot and boiled it for 2 hours.

And guess what?  It was still thorny.  

So I boiled it for another hour.  And still, I needed to don gloves to peel it.  I was rewarded with a few large and beautiful seeds and a very slimy out covering that still managed somehow to be 'poky'.  

But underneath was this beautiful cellulose structure, just exactly like is found in the loofah gourd!

Now honestly, it's just a tad harsh to use on my skin.  It's really going on 'Brillo Pad' harshness.  But it is perfect for scrubbing pots and pans.

I'm satisfied. 

The house is warm from boiling the cuke for three hours, I was distracted from the rain and I have a nifty pot scrubber.  And I got to use a fairy plant.  Not a bad day on the farm.