did it look like this? http://www.luffa.info/images/luffayoung1.jpg

Quite a lot. Since it's been over 15 years the best I can do is say it looked like a very big zuchinni and the pic at the site you posted looks like a very big zuchinni to me. Is that lufa?

yup--it's a luffa.I believe they're eaten when young.I had them reseed temselves and grow quite well in Nasville.

Were they light green??? Basing on your description that it was tough I think It is a Gourd. Luffas are not tough when sliced. You can buy this gourd (Seed)at any vegie catalog, although the ones I see are not the long ones but they taste the same. They are edible and you can purchase them in asian grocery store. There are a lot of recipes, eating them just steam is quite bland. Let me know if I can further help you. Bellie

It could be any of the following:
Calabash Gourd (OPO Gourd, Bottle Gourd)
Edible Luffa (Dish Cloth Luffa, Sponge Gourd)
Hairy Gourd (Fuzzy Gourd, Mao Qwa)
Snake Gourd (Serpent Gourd)
You can go to http://www.evergreenseeds.com/vegetableseeds.html to check it out. I have never ordered from them before. But their selection is huge.

Ying

I'd bet it was bottle gourd. Luffa has yellow flowers, while gourds have white.

Did you decide on anything Tom_at_BuzzardBluff?

Beware the asian zucchini from evergreen seeds. They produce alright, and I like the 'Rondo, very productive and tasty, explodes overnight to a large size. The 'Green bt' didn't produce much, and tend to be hollow, the 'green Ball' hasn't been very productive.

All of the above are extreme ramblers, and take up a lot of space, perhaps 6 feet in each direction, and produce so much leaf that the fruit are hard to find. Overall, 'Rondo' is best, if you've got space.

I am very pleased so far with 'Papaya sweet', which should be a sweet 'winter squash' for storage after ripening, like a pumpkin. It climbs well on a fence, and the growing tips are bent and very flexible, which makes it easy to train by hooking the vine into fencing, and the leaves are a pretty sight with silvery veins, very ornamental. They haven't flowered yet, so I can't comment on fruit quality.

The bottle gourd is an extreme climber, and can make almost 1 foot per day, it likes to grow upwards, and you can expect twenty feet of growth, white flowers at night.

The angled luffa and snake gourd are thin vines, but many-branched, yet well enough behaved for me to guide along a fence.

These are my observations, and you may have different ones.
Jay

The 'snake gourd' flowers are weird looking, with frilly edges, very ornamental in morning time, and fragrant. It's name, Thichosanthes, is Greek meaning "hair flower".

Here is a link that might be useful: snake gourd flower

I think thats long opo squash, if they're tough it means, they may be the short version of opo squash. But the cooking instruction for them is to cook it with flavor, or other food such as meat or eggs. I use to cook them with steak or pork cubes, and they will pick up flavors from the meat and balance the flavor.

Also, a quick steaming them for a few minute before stir-frying will also help with crossing flavors.

Most like a bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) these are popular in Asia whereas the zucchini (cucurbita pepo is not. These have many common names including Opo, Upo (Phillipine)Poo Gua,(Chinese) Hyotan (Japanese) Buap Khaus (Thai), Lauki ( India). They are also popular in the Mediterannean as Zucchetta Cucuzzi. Luffas (sponge gourds) both the ridged (Luffa acutangula) and the Smooth Luffa (Luffa cylindrica) are called Chinese or vine okra in North America and are used as an edible when quite small. There are Korean squash like Rondo and Green Ball which are C.pepo.

If squash are tough to chew it also means they have over-grown, the one that old lady gave you has been on the vine for too long. You need to pick the ones that are recently grown, with light green and whitish color. Also young ones skin are soft, you can dug your nail in, older ones have tougher skin... not that you should do this in grocery store, do it with your own plant.