Sunday, October 14, 2012

Pumpkin 'art' and the two loofahs...

Pumpkins are believed to originate from North America...
The Japanese call them 'kabocha', which rhymes with Kampuchea...
Apparently, to the Japanese, the pumpkin came into Japan from Cambodia, hence the name...
Our pumpkin harvest is not too bad this year...
All in all, we manage to harvest seven fruits of this 'Ebisu' specie...
With no scissors on hand, I just ripped the stalks off from this pumpkin...
And woah, do I see a 'bird' here?
And this one... a little monster flexing its muscles?
Now, the loofah is supposed to originate from India...
We grow both types...
The pictures above shows the Egyptian loofah which is rather smooth-skinned...
I observe that it flowers in the morning...
The second type is the angled loofah...
They seem to prefer flowering in the evening...
My sweeto haato prefers the smooth-skinned Egyptian... better taste, she says...
Rather unfortunately for her, our angled loofahs were more productive this season...
Perhaps, 43 angled loofahs compared to about 30 Egyptian loofahs...
In any case, we usually make soups out of them...

11 comments:

  1. Is a pumpkin evolving into a bird?

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  2. Flexing its muscles...heeheee ;) Looking through your past posts and catching up. I'm always amazed at what you are growing, Lrong! My friend is growing loofah in her backyard. It's threatening to take over the whole place!

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    1. Cat... thanks for dropping by... yeap, the loofah can be rather invasive... our plant is now 'slowing down' due to the impending cold...

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  3. My dad grew Ebisu pumpkins last year - really enjoyed them, great texture and flavour.

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    1. Liz, you are right on... the color, texture, and flavor of the Ebisu is really good...

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  4. Hi Lrong,

    Are the loofahs similar to the ‘drumsticks’ from India? I have tried them cooked but although very tasty there is very little flesh from the insides and it is a pain to get out as you can’t eat the outside skin...

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    1. Actually, I have not heard of 'drumsticks' from India... until now, thanks to you... and from what I found, it is different from loofah... the drumstick sounds very interesting and I would like to try growing it if I can get the seeds...

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  5. That's very good loofah harvest! I like the angle loofah! ;)

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  6. Wow thats a lot of loofah. Do you dry them and make sponge sometime?
    Now I understand where 'kabocha' came from.

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    1. Yes, I dry some of them to use for cleaning my pots... they are very useful...

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