Loofah, edible and functional (3)

Loofah soup with tofu, bean curd skin and pork ribs [Photo provided to China Daily]

Loofah is also a lucrative commercial crop.

In our Yunnan home, the local market often offers loofah products that are extra stocks from the factory nearby.

There are the whole dried loofah, bleached and baked and looped into a thick rope. Guaranteed to keep your back well-scrubbed.

Cropped pieces of dried loofah are also sold for the kitchen sink, and they work better than the wire scrubs any day, and are also more environmentally friendly.

There are original soaps-on-the-rope, too. Homemade soaps using the local osmanthus and lavender are melted and poured into sections of sun-bleached loofah.

The result is a convenient scrub and clean beauty product.

We started planting loofah in our Beijing garden a few years ago. At first, it shared space with the grapes, but we soon found that it grew better in strong sunshine and gave it its own garden arch.

The seeds germinate quickly, and once the vines are about man height, they start blooming.

This when you have to pay more attention to this seemingly fuss-free gourd. Once the bright yellow flowers appear, they need to be hand pollinated for better fruiting.