Historic Tree Nursery Store offers a variety of saplings sourced from trees with historical connections. There’s a weeping willow from Walden Pond; a green ash from the plantation where George Washington Carver was born; and a pin oak from Graceland.
You’ll also find three ginkgo trees in their inventory: Truman’s Walk Ginkgo (shown here); a Frank Lloyd Wright ginkgo from his home in Oak Park, Illinois; and the George Eastman Ginkgo in Rochester, New York.
(c)2005 Mike Estee.
While it’s hard to believe that Ginkgo Dreams has been around for a year, it’s not so hard to believe that I completely missed an occasion for celebration. August 18, 2006 marked the first anniversary of this site. One year ago, I made my first post here. The work begun then came to a screeching halt in October when I experienced some major issues with my previous host. I didn’t pick up this project again until April.
The last year wouldn’t have been possible without the kindness of the many contributors who have graciously allowed their work, whether in word or picture, to appear here. I thank all of you.
I’m grateful to all of my readers as well. While I created this project for myself, you’ve given me a larger reason for being here.
If you’d like to subscribe to Ginkgo Dreams, click Subscribe in the sidebar. There you’ll have either the option of adding Ginkgo Dreams to your feed reader, or you may choose to subscribe via e-mail. E-mail subscriptions are handled via Feedburner, who promises never to share your e-mail address with anyone else. I typically post several times a week.
Here’s to another year!
Limited edition fine art print by Ann Telizcan.
The “Hassun” portion of the bento. This is also commonly seen in “kaiseki’’ Japanese course meals. It is usually a collection of hor d’oeuvres that represent the current season and different food groups (e.g. seafood, poultry, vegetables, fried foods, etc...)
In this bento, the hassun contains salted salmon roe, fried gingko nuts, prawns breaded with shredded wonton skins and deep-fried, miso-coated broiled salmon, dashi-maki omelettes and miscellaneous autumnal garnish.
Text and image courtesy of panduh.
In South Bend, Indiana (via the South Bend Tribune), a ginkgo is among the trees that gave their lives for new road construction:
The Gallays are losing their horseshoe driveway and are afraid of water draining off the road and pollution from passing traffic, which promises to increase in the future.
They and other neighbors also are distressed by the old-growth trees that have been lost to the construction.
Fegaras said InDOT follows federal highway guidelines regarding the acquisition and clearing of the right-of-way.
“There is not a set rule for acquiring right-of-way,’’ she said. ‘Each parcel is considered individually based on the road design in that particular area.’’
“I had a beautiful gingko tree,’’ Pamela Connor said.
Tanya Barnett, who lives with three generations of her family just west of Capital Avenue, said they lost both pine and deciduous trees from their front yard. The trees served to filter out the lights and the smells from passing traffic, she said. They also provided shade to help cool the house.
“They’ve changed the whole dynamic of the neighborhood,’’ she said.
The Gallays have a different tree issue. A large pine tree in their front hard was not cut down, but some lower branches were hacked off on the side that faces Day Road. The pruning left the tree with an unbalanced appearance.
“That griped me,’’ Virginia Gallay said.
Losing their driveway was bad enough, she said, “but chopping the tree, that was uncalled for.’’
The Villager has more on the lopped ginkgo trees in New York, including the photo above.
Double desk lamp, available from Steel Partners, Inc.
From the Green Bay Press-Gazette:
Vandals struck a number of young trees in the village including one with deep historic roots.
In 2000, the Denmark VFW post obtained a tree grown from the seeds of other trees that stood in the backyard of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s boyhood home.
A special ceremony was held to signify the planting of that tree, which was then dedicated to the veterans who served in World War II.
Last week vandals snapped the tree in half and vandalized a number of other ginkgo trees in the Denmark Memorial Park area.
“That’s a special tree, and it’s irreplaceable,” village Administrator Gordon Ellis said. “It was a tribute to World War II. Now it’s gone.”
This set of leaf rubbing plates from Gardening with Kids includes a ginkgo leaf.
UK readers may be interested in this bonsai ginkgo from Peter Kirkham‘s private collection.
Image courtesy of Mikey 720.
Obachan kindly shares a recipe for horoku-yaki. She tells me that this dish is more commonly eaten in autumn and winter.
Sounds like just the thing in a month or so.
Normally, the billboard advertising a “mobile multimedia and messaging” company called Helio would have been hard to miss. Large in scale, intriguing in message, it bore the catchphrase “Don’t call it a phone” and was plastered across the scaffolding that surrounds a brown brick building called the Cheyney on 23rd Street near Eighth Avenue.
There was just one problem. Four large ginkgo trees planted by the city were blocking much of the advertisement. And on July 16, less than a week after the billboard went up, the tops of all four trees were mysteriously lopped off.
Read the rest at The New York Times.
Ginkgo leaf bronze and glass doorbell surround from Paul Strauch Studio.
Set of 150 square notes with ginkgo leaf design from Brookfield Stationery.
A ginkgo tree is cut down, and another one is planted.
From China Daily:
Experts have started injecting nutrient-containing microelements like nitrogen and phosphorus into a 200-year-old ginkgo in the front of the former residence of Guo Moruo (1892-1978), a Chinese scholar and one of the leading writers of 20th-century China.
Following days of hot weather in Chongqing Municipality, over half of the tree’s branches and leaves dried and rotted for the lack of microelements. Actually, it is suffering from heatstroke, they say.
They are confident that the tree can be vitalized if it is rescued in time and treated properly.
I’m no tree scientist, but does this kind of thing really work?
Image courtesy of trAvelpig.
The deadline for submissions is August 29. See further details at Festival of the Trees.
Limited edition archival print by Todd Marsee.
More than once, while living in Korea, I ate at Sanchon. Sanchon serves Korean temple food, which is entirely vegetarian. Although not a vegetarian myself, I lived among many of them, so it was an easy choice when entertaining visitors from out of the country.
Sanchon publishes recipes lacking in ingredient amounts and full directions on its site, including this one for ginkgo nut rice, known as 은행 밥 (eunhaeng bap) in Korean. Use your best judgment and enjoy the results.
Material
gingko nuts, soil dureup (edible shoots of a fatsia), rice and seasoned soy sauce (soy sauce, parched sesame, and sesame oil)How to cook
1) Boil gingko nuts, which are peeled off, together with rice.
2) When the rice boils, put edible shoots of fatsia in them, and boil them again.
3) When the rice is boiled, mix them well, add seasoned soy sauce and serve them.
Wall-mounted bird bath/feeder, available from Prospect Country Store.
The ginkgo tree, already distinguished for its medicinal properties and ancient history, has another claim to fame. Its cells are home to an alga, a guest no other tree is known to host. Moreover, this interloper exists in ginkgo trees throughout the world, suggesting a long-standing, albeit enigmatic, partnership.
A common ornamental tree planted along sidewalks and in gardens throughout the world, Ginkgo biloba—also called the maidenhair tree—has been considered a source of herbal medicine for millennia. During the 1990s, several studies showed the extracts helped improve memory in patients with dementia (ScienceNOW, 30 May). And today, ginkgo is a popular remedy sold not just for memory loss but also for ailments ranging from depression to hemorrhoids.
Read the rest at ScienceNOW.
Bronze earrings from California Fleurish.
Image courtesy of Sir Frog.
Hand-painted crystal glass, created by Archelan.
Design A Cake Online offers a ginkgo leaf veiner.
Detail of a French Art Deco iron console table.
Make your own ginkgo origami by following the picture instructions at Origami Club. The words are in Japanese, but the pictures tell you everything you need to know.
Blue Chopsticks sells a ginkgo gift tree. Just be sure the recipient has the space to plant one.
University of Tokyo. Image courtesy of mrhayata.
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The second Festival of the Trees is now up at Roundrock Journal.
When I first started Ginkgo Dreams, I found Cor Kwant’s The Ginkgo Pages. Although I’ve always listed it in my sidebar, I’ve avoided visiting it, as I wanted the collection at Ginkgo Dreams to reflect my own experience and perspective.
However, with the wealth of information there, you don’t have to make the same mistake. I recently discovered that Kwant has added a blog to her site. You can find it here.
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