Well, it is almost September…and the ginko trees are dropping their malodorous fruit! For those of you who havent smelled them,it is awful,to me they smell like spoiled milk mixed with rotten fish-absolutely terrible. But I have noticed a lot of mostly elderly Chinese men gathering up the fruit. I asked one of these guys why he used the fruit-the answer I got was that the fruit was supposed to lower your blood pressure. I just heard that the ginko has no effect on memory, so, I ask you asian-americans…is this stuff worth eating? How do you stand the awful smell?
Even though IANAAA (I am not an Asian-American), you don’t eat the fruit, you eat the nuts. IIRC you stick the fruit in a quicklime solution until the freshy layer falls off.
As for the memory thing it’s not the fruit it’s the leaves. Also read some experts having contrary opinions with regards to the new research.
Ah, the world’s oldest species of tree. Here’s what one site has to say:
Of course, they do have some to sell you, so consider the source.
A useful caution
I looked through Cecil’s article on Sperm trees of Los Angeles to see if it could shed further light on this question, but I couldn’t find anything relevant. Interestingly enough, I searched the Straight Dope Archivefor “sperm trees” and got four hits!
In a book called Ghosts of Evolution the writer talks about eating all sorts of odd things, including ginko nuts. Also says something about large quantities of them not being real healthy.
Asians utilize some food resources we don’t (know a guy who used to push the merits of chicken foot soup, which consists pretty much of what it sounds like). This may have been from necessity, or from a certain openmindedness about food sources.