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Old March 6, 2018   #15
habitat_gardener
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: California Central Valley
Posts: 2,539
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Re figleaf gourd, C. ficifolia: I grew it for a couple years at a community garden, and it was quite vigorous. The fruits have a thin, hard shell and last a couple years. I still have one that's 2.5 years old. I enjoyed baking slices of the immature fruit (they are still quite large, 2-6 pounds) like a summer squash, but no one else in my household liked them. The mature ones look like white spaghetti squash inside, with black seeds, and are bland enough that you could cook anything with them.

A funny story: A few years ago, a neighbor at the community garden gave me a squash plant. She did not know the name in English. The fruits never seemed quite right; when they looked big enough, they felt like styrofoam, and I thought I'd waited too long to pick them, so I put them in the compost. Since they looked distinctive, however, I looked around at the farmers' market to try to ID the variety. It turned out it was a luffa/loofah!! So I retrieved the one in the compost, which by then had started to decay, washed away the seeds and minimal pulp, and voila! A homegrown luffa sponge.

Zeedman, I'm curious why chayote was the most interesting and rewarding vegetable you've ever grown.
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