Time flies! Just before New Years our family visited our friends near Manchester. I’ve been meaning to write about ginkgo nuts.
Atsuko is a dear friend and a foodie and always makes the effort to introduce me to something new and delicious, often from her Japanese cuisine of birth. Here she is with my daughter and two Buddhas feelin’ the Christmas spirit.
This year she’d bought gingko nuts,
roasted them on the stove (in fact in that same pan she uses to make square omelette for sushi)…
, 
hammered off the shells with her floral hammer on her cute table cloth…
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and served them on a polka dot plate that I gave her ages ago (she’s a polka dot fiend!)…
I really wanted to love them, and was THRILLED to be trying them, but there was something bitter and acrid to which I couldn’t surrender — somewhere I’ve read the word “acrimonious.” Atsuko and her hubby and manly teenagers were gobbling them up, so they must be a delicacy.
Of course you may be near a gingko tree that may grow nuts that you can forage, and I would relish that opportunity one day. Here’s how it goes in Brooklyn, but there are other google-able references. Beware some toxicity in the nut, and don’t eat too many at a time, and many people wear gloves when they are doing the shelling.
And to the boy on my street growing up who used to lob the stinky rotting fruits in our direction: Hey, how are you after all these years? Would you be interested in this great article from Permacultural Research Institute, or this Plants for a Future entry? Thanks, Tough Kid, for introducing me to this tree and some elements of its life cycle!
Very interesting post and thanks for the links too.
I always enjoy reading your articles. Glad to be a part of your passionate, informative and lovely blog. Your food is really thought provoking! Please keep inspiring all the foodie people. ATK
When I did landscape architecture, I remember learning that this was a great tree to include in designs – as long as you only planted male trees in public areas. As a result, female trees might be hard for readers to find (but they don’t sound very appetising anyway).
I guess it’s the 0pp[0site if y0u are thinking 0f the nuts as medicine and f00d… th0ugh the smell is m0st rev0lting, it’s true, but maybe that’s s0mething G00D, t0 ensure a range 0f 0lfact0ry stimulation…..