Who is going to grow ginkgo nuts for me?
Posted by Michael on 05 Apr 2007 at 11:28 am | Tagged as: Food and Wine, Home and Garden
I have visited a few stores in search of ginkgo nuts （银杏有没有？）to no avail.
I found a place that sells the tress. Apparently they smell so the females are not popular as ornamentals. Very interesting tree.
http://www.grimonut.com/section2.htm#ginkgo
What does one use ginkgo nuts for?
I have a Korean recipe for braised beef that calls for them, but I have always seen them substituted with pine nuts.
Apparently, they are poisonous if ingested in large quantities.
Extract from the leaves is supposed to increase brain function etc.
Another interesting fact from Wikipedia:
Extreme examples of the Ginkgo’s tenacity may be seen in Hiroshima, Japan, where four trees growing between 1–2 km from the 1945 atom bomb explosion were among the few living things in the area to survive the blast (photos & details). While almost all other plants (and animals) in the area were destroyed, the ginkgos, though charred, survived and were healthy. The trees are alive to this day.