Meet Illinois FFA Student Madelyn Davin

Illinois FFA State Champion Turns Luffa Gourds Into a Growing Business

Madelyn Davin started with 10 plants in five-gallon buckets. Today, she grows about 30 luffa gourds on cattle panel trellises, and her all-natural luffas are sold through a local goat soap business.

Madelyn, a rising senior at Staunton High School, is the Illinois FFA State Champion and a national finalist in Specialty Crop Production. She joined IL Corn TV host Lyndi Allen to talk about her project, and it's more hands-on than you might expect. The gourds hang from the trellis and dry completely before harvest. Then Madelyn removes the hard outer shell, cleans the fibrous luffa in a warm, soapy bath, and shakes out the seeds to keep the fiber white and market-ready.

Her FFA roots run deep. Her dad is her ag teacher, and she's been involved for most of her life. That includes a childhood memory of the chili cook-off, where the baby food eating contest was the real entertainment.

Madelyn also brought her public speaking skills to a topic that matters to Illinois farmers: solar development on productive farmland. She supports solar energy but argues for smarter siting, such as parking lots, brownfields, and gas station canopies. Where farmland is the only option, she sees agrivoltaics, which pairs solar panels with grazing, shade-loving crops, or pollinator habitat, as the next best approach. Her goal is to show how agriculture and energy can work together to feed and power the world.

Watch the full conversation on IL Corn TV.