Loofah is a vegetable in the cucurbit family, along with cucumbers and squash.  The fruit of the loofah is eaten when it is young and looks and tastes like a zucchini.  When the hanging fruits are allowed to mature on their vine, they grow bigger and develop very strong fibers inside.  After the fruit dries on the vine (it becomes lightweight and the skin turns from a fleshy green to a papery brown) it can easily be peeled and used as a natural sponge.  Loofah sponges are common enough that most of you have probably heard of them, but perhaps you weren't sure where they came from.  A lot of people assume they come from the ocean!  Low and behold, they grow in a garden just like cucumbers do.  We've been growing loofah vines at our nursery location all summer (they actually love our tropical summer climate, but they grow year round) and we have collected enough  sponges to give each of our CSA members their own loofah wedge to try as a sponge.  My personal favorite way to use these sponges is in the shower.  They may seem rough at first, but when they are wet and lathered with soap they are the absolute perfect exfoliator!

This is Dan, he's been working with Chris French all season and soon will be off to the peace corps in Guatemala.  This is the cabbage haul they brought in from the field this week for you guys!  This variety called Capture is a basic green cabbage, but the shape is squashed and the flavor is very mild and sweet.  We are all very much into them; we are nerding out over these cabbages and we hope you will too! If you need a little cabbage recipe inspiration check out this all time favorite Roasted Cabbage Wedge Salad, from a beautiful blog called The Yellow House.  YUM!

IN THE SHARES THIS WEEK:

We asked Cool Runnings Farm to harvest collards greens for you this week to take a little break from kale.  Kale is great and collards are really similar, but they offer a unique opportunity for replacing tortillas to make wraps and stuffed leaves.  Their flavor profile is pretty much identical to kale and although they have a reputation for something that needs to be cooked for hours, the truth is that collards are basically a different variety of kale and can be treated the same way.  Take a look at the giant uniform leaves of the collards and see the potential for all sorts of wraps!  Check out this recipe for wild rice stuffed collard greens.  Also, do yourself a big favor and google search "collard greens wraps".  You'll find beautiful things like this!