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H/10/1987-1-

October 6, 1987

The Society's last meeting for the year took place at Lakeview, home of Mary
Seiler. The house and grounds both reflected clean lines and elegant taste.
The modern features of the residence were as comfortable and pleasing as
those equally timeless homes in the community that were built over a century
ago. Unfortunate to be absent were the Rogers, Priscilla Allen and Susan
Canby. Pity as well there were no guests. The meal was tangibly more
relaxed and leisurely than mid-season gatherings. Everyone seemed happy to
enjoy the company of friends who would be largely unseen during the cold
months ahead.

Mo Chance read the selected article entitled "Luffa: Garden Grown
Scrubbers". Once the luffa sponge also called the rag gourd and sponge
cucumber was a novelty item quite infrequently grown in the home garden.
In recent years the plant and its fruits have become popular, chic, and of
increasing usefulness. The luffa sponge's common utilization is as a bath
sponge but it has gone as far as being used as an oil filter.

As a bath sponge its invigorating roughness stimulates blood flow and removes
dead skin cells. The same properties make it useful in the kitchen sink as a
pot scrubber. Properly cared for a luffa sponge can remain useful for years.

Luffas can be grown like cucumbers. They need 110-120 days to mature.
Methods for cleaning and processing luffas vary from the very methodical to
that of the neglect and conquer approach. Most basic is to let the fruit dry
sufficiently, knock out the seeds, and peel the skin off. A civilizing touch is
to run the cleaned luffas through the washer with a little soap and bleach. A
couple vines are ample per household. Overproduction is easy but can satisfy
one's gift-giving responsibilities for the entire year.

Mary Seiler volunteered an article from the August 23, 1987 New York Times
entitled Farming Without Chemicals: Age-Old Technologies Becoming State of
Art. It was a very encouraging account of the growing trend to reduce
dependency on high cost and residually destructive chemical methods of
controlling pests, eliminating weeds, and increasing yields. Relatively simple
practices of crop rotation and companion planting promise to help the large-
scale farmer save money, reduce groundwater pollution, cut back on topsoil
loss, and give greater harvests for the effort and expense. In these dark
times of seemingly endless environmental abuse in the pursuit of agricultural
overproduction, the article offered a ray of sunshine.

The minutes from October 4, 1887 were read. It was said that roses could be
trimmed in the fall. Hard cider should be turned to vinegar and english
sparrows were mentioned as possible enemies of the grape harvest. One
member of the community saved his grape harvest wih 17,000 bags placed
over the clusters. Elizabeth Thornton had copied the celebratory tract of the
Society's 50th anniversary and distributed the copies with further requests to
use the uneventful winter months to plan for next year's 125th anniversary.

Forethought advised us to lift tender bulbs and store them in a cool place.
Plant perrenials. Bring house plants indoors. Citrus plants can't take
temperatures below 50 degrees. The raspberry patch ought to be cleaned and