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[carryboo]

I was walking down my street the first fall after I moved into my current apartment and found a lovely leaf on the sidewalk. I picked it up and brought it inside, looked up info about it, and then placed it inside a heavy book. Since then, I've only seen the leaf once (and I can't remember which book it's in), and I haven't really thought more

Comments

[carryboo]

That's neat, I'd heard that in Japan they're bar snacks! I think since I know how they stink before they get to be the tasty snack, I would definitely need a few bottles of sake before I could enjoy them ;)

[pondbluebird]

i live on gramercy park and the neighborhood is filled with ginkgos. they are so smelly! i love the leaves though - especially when they turn yellow.

anyway, the asian ladies are always around gathering the nuts. i was talking to this doorman in the area the other week who told me he asked a lady about why she was gathering them. apparently they get like $70 to gather 2 pounds worth!

but no, never tasted them.

[pondbluebird]

I've never tried the nuts because I've never seen big, mature ginkos. I used to work at a nursery run by a Taiwanese family, and we had three trees for sale. They were about five feet tall, about 4 inches thick and about $400 a piece. I love the leaves, too.

It did remind me of a funny story about a similar Chinese fruit -- Durian. They are those crazy spiky looking things you see in Asian grocery stores. Apparently they really stink too. My boss at the nursery didn't speak very much English, but he did like to give me food all the time to show that he liked me. One day he walked in with a Durian and said, "Jill. You try this?". I said, "No, I've never tried one." He shook his head and made a face and said, "No good for you." and walked away laughing. His daughter had to explain the joke to me the next day. - Jill (davenjilly)

[carryboo]

Ewww, durian! I've never had it, but I see it all the time, and it makes me so curious, same as with the Ginkgo nuts. Like, how bad could it be? Have you ever seen that show with Andrew Zimmern, where he eats all kinds of icky things like penises and live insects and everything? I saw him eat durian, and he couldn't finish it--it was the one thing that truly grossed him out!

[carryboo]

That picture is so lovely--thank goodness it's not scratch & sniff though, just in case there are any nuts under them! :)

$70 for 2 pounds!! I guess that's worth the stink!

[thespunmonkey]

There's a retirement community out here that got a whole bunch of gingko trees to plant, on the cheap. You can guess why, and one whole side of the property is lined with the trees. Every single damn one of them is female and the place STINKS during the fruiting season. They had no idea when they planted them, ha ha. My grandparents-in-law's residence is, of course, on that end of the community and they get to smell it in their home. Awesome. Sounds intriguing, but hell no, I'm sure I can't get past the smell to even attempt preparing them. I sure would love to watch someone else do it, though. On video. Or through binoculars.

[carryboo]

Ha! That stinks (literally, ohhh)! I wonder if there's a neighboring Asian community that they can tell about the trees who might want to come and harvest all the fruit?

Yeah, me too, I would totally get too sick to even deal with them. It's much safer reading about it instead!