The Sponge Man

Yesterday, at the beach as Scott and I were lounging in the soft, white sand reading our (respective) Kindle and Nook...I heard the call, "I am the sponge man"!  Always interested in unique sales pitches, I turned up my gaze and saw this guy.  "Loofas!  Natural loofahs!" he called out.  While I don't need a loofah - or luffa as the genus is more commonly known - (I'm a synthetic "bath poof" girl myself) I did think these were really interesting, particularly because he had a few that were still in the raw - meaning they were contained in the pods they grew in.

Despite my original supposal that these products come from the sea, the loofah is actually from a plant that grows on land called "cucurbits" and grows like a gourd from a tree.  A tree!?  All my life I wrongly assumed these things came from the ocean!  Am I the only one who was in the dark here?  Pretty interesting stuff really.  For you trivia types out there, you can learn more about the natural loofah and how it's harvested here.  You never know when Jeopardy might call!

Love,
Brittany & Scott