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Most used Today
Ideas
Bush Foods of the Cadigal People
Bush Foods of the Darug People
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INDIGENOUS HERBS, FRUITS, NUTS & VEGETABLES
Note!
A lot of native flavours are much more intense than the domestic ones
we are used to, so it is best to begin by adding small amounts to cooking
until a sense of the measure can be gauged.
Most Used Today
Wattleseed
(An amazing coffee, chocolate, hazelnut flavoured Acacia seed as grounds
or extract) Wattle seeds are dry roasted and ground to enhance their natural
nutty, coffee-like flavour. Brisbane Wattle roasted tastes like a combination
of hazelnut, chocolate and coffee.
COLOR - toasted chocolate brown grounds, milled to perfection for
cooking or use in espresso, drip filter or plunger coffee equipment. Also
available as a dark brown water-based liquid
AROMA - toasted roasted notes with coffee, chocolate hazelnut characters
PALATE - chocolate short palate with coffee notes less the bitterness
and a nutty finish similar to hazelnuts
Wattleseed as medicine and nutrition
The fats in wattleseeds are typically 5 to 10% of the raw seed weight
but there is an interesting point to note here. Many Acacia seeds have
an appendage known as an aril which is a structure which holds the seed
in the pod. The arils can vary in colour from a light tan to bright yellow,
orange or red. No studies have been conducted on the pigments which are
probably carotenoid compounds which are related to and often precursors
of vitamin A. What we do know is that the arils are very high in polyunsaturated
oils and many taste absolutely delicious. In fact, some species were used
by Aborigines to flavour their drinking water: The whole seeds, with arils
attached, were immersed in water and worked through the fingers to almost
homogenise the fats into the water. It certainly flavoured the water and
I can best describe the taste as close to the toasty notes of just baked
bread but with a range of interesting aromatic flavours, again, depending
upon the species.
Kurrajong Flour
Highly nutritious seeds extracted from hairy pods of Kurrajong and Illawarra
Flame Trees. Roasted and ground they produce exceptional rich, dark flour.
Macadamia Nuts and Oil
Delicious crunchy textured nut is grown widely in Queensland and New South
Wales, and was Australia's first indigenous plant to be used commercially.
Warrigal Greens
A sprawling ground cover plant found in many parts of Australia, settlers
and early ship crews used it as a spinach substitute to allay scurvy.
Kakadu Plum
This sharp flavoured green plum has the world's highest recorded fruit
content of vitamin C, and is found from Katherine to the Kimberly. Kakadu
Plum doesn't look like a plum at all, being small and pale green with
a cling-stone that necessitates the mildly apricot flavoured flesh being
sliced free. It is its extremely high Vitamin C content that is the main
selling point of this fruit, which is marketed frozen, in preserves and
in ice-cream.
Illawarra Plums
A unique dark red berry from the Brown Pine. The stone grows on the outside
of the fruit. It is a semi-tropical tree ranging from New South Wales
to Queensland. The flavour is tart and plum-like, but less sour than the
Davidson's Plum, with a pleasant, subtle resinous quality. Fruit should
be blended or diced before cooking (use stainless steel utensils), and
add lemon juice or vinegar. Evergreen, upright, conical spreading tree
from 5 - 30 metres tall, dioecious, i.e. male and female tree needed for
fertilisation and fruit production. Daalgaal (Barron River, Qld) Gidneywallum
(Gubbi Gubbi, Qld
Burdekin Plum Quite well known and still eaten in the country,
its biggest disadvantage is the comparatively large woody seed and the
widely varying quality of wild fruits. There are red fleshed blood plums
and the sweeter ones which are green/white inside. It can be eaten in
the hand, (after holding for some days after picking) Makes good preserves
and a reasonable wine
Davidson's Plum
The fruits are deep burgundy with a bluish bloom, and a high ratio of
flesh to seed. The flavour is very tart plum, and it is usually sweetened
and cooked in some way such as in sauces, dressings, desserts and preserves.
Cheesefruit or Great Morinda
Is a soft pulpy edible fruit when ripe, smelling and tasting strongly
of blue vein cheese and pineapple. is sold as frozen juice for flavouring
cream sauces, pasta, polenta, dips, marinades and dressings.
Samphire
The young green stems form a low ground cover salt bush that is found
all over Australia on coastal and inland salt flats.
Bunya Nuts
Large starchy textured nuts with a tough woody casing from the cone of
the huge Bunya pine tree that is native to New South Wales and Queensland.
Wild barramundi served with a pesto made from Bunya Nut
Lemon Aspen
Small pale lemon coloured fruit with a unique sharp citrus flavour and
found in rainforests from Sydney to the far north.
Aniseed Myrtle
Has smaller, darker, wavy edged leaves with an aniseed or Pernod flavour
with a sweetish after taste. Like the Lemon Myrtle, the leaves are sold
fresh chilled, and dried whole or ground. They may be used whole as Bay
leaves, in teas, or as a garnish in vinegars and oils. Ground it is an
extremely versatile flavouring for a variety of savoury and sweet dishes.
Pepper Leaf
These hot and spicy leaves are from a large shrub that develops a subtle
pepper flavour when cooked.
Small-leafed Tamarind
Is a rare and endangered species, which produces its bright red fruits
in mid summer. Growing plants like this eliminates the need to harvest
these types of bush foods from the bush, and leaves the fruit and seeds
for the animals and birds that need them.
Paper Bark
Aboriginals have used the Melaleuca tree for a multitude of purposes,
from cooking, to carrying water, to providing shelter. Paperbark can be
used to wrap around damper or fish, and cooking in an oven or on a barbeque
draws the oils from the bark and imparts its unique flavour to the food.
Wild Limes
Small round tropical fruit has a sharp grapefruit, lime flavour. Wild
or Desert Lime which grows on a small, prickly, almost leafless tree.
The fruit can be quite variable in size, from 10 to 30mm in diameter,
and light green or yellowish in colour with a thin skin. It is used whole
or sliced, and sold frozen or as marmalades, sauces, dressings and seasonings.
Because the trees are slow growing, experiments are being conducted involving
grafting limes to exotic citrus rootstock in an effort to reduce the waiting
time for the first harvest.
Bush Tomato
Can only be grown in the Northern Territory is used dried and ground.
Bush Tomato (Solanum centrale) also called Desert raisin, Desert tomato
Other species such as S. chippendalei and S. ellipticum also produce edible
fruit and are of interest to the native foods industry. Akatjera (Arrente),
Kampurarrpa (Pitjantjatjara), Kati Kati (Anangu Uluru, NT) Small shrub
(to 30 cm) that produces underground suckers from the mother plant. Spines
on branches. Fruit
Colour: dark brown
Appearance: globular raisin like.
Caution - green (unripe) fruits are toxic, fruit of some related species
are toxic. Intense, earthy-tomato and caramel flavours of great piquancy
and pungency. Savoury spice Dried spice, dipping sauces, chutneys &
relishes, seasoning for white and red meats
Muntries or Native Cranberries
Small crunchy berries that have a delicious sweet apple flavour. Prostrate
or occasionally semi-upright shrub. Grown successfully on trellis under
cultivation. Fruit (berry)
Appearance: green with a red to purplish tinge at maturity
Size: up to 1 cm in diameter Munthari S.A Spicy-apple. Jams & conserves,
chutneys & relishes, fruit chews. Muntries, Munthari (Kunzea pomifera)
Warrigal greens
It is cooked as spinach or Asian greens, blanched in salads, or used in
pesto, quiches, stuffings and pasta. The plants grow naturally in sandy
coastal soils and in the inland, assuming almost pest status in some broad
land agricultural areas. It is quick growing and in demand in the restaurant
trade. In the early days of the colony, Saturdays were officially set
aside for collecting native plants to try to prevent scurvy. Many convicts
owed their lives to eating the leaves of Warrigal Greens. In England,
it became a popular summer vegetable.
Native thyme or basil
Is a purple flowered herb of the inland with a flavour which is a combination
of thyme, tarragon and rosemary. It is sold dried and ground, and is used
as a seasoning in all sorts of savoury dishes.
Bush Tomatoes
Also called "Desert Raisins", this small pungent berry is collected
by Aborigines in the central desert regions from a shrub related to the
tomato family.
Native Pear
This vine from arid areas produces a green pod with seeds which, when
young, taste like fresh peas.
Splitjack or Nipan
Grows on low prickly bush.
Pigface or Beach Banana
A very palatable fruit grown on sandy soils. The fleshy leaves are also
edible, but it is the soft fruits which are generally sold frozen.
Ideas with food
- Wild barramundi served with a pesto made from Bunya Nut.
- Crocodile sprinkled with a combination of ground Lemon Myrtle and
Mountain Pepper.
- Prawns cooked with Lemon Aspen
- Emu with sweet chilli sauce made from Davidson's Plum.
- Paperbark can be used to wrap around damper or fish, and cooking in
an oven or on a barbeque draws the oils from the bark and imparts its
unique flavour to the food.
- Round Lime and Finger Lime are both good in cool drinks, marmalades
or squeezed over seafood.
- Illawarra Plum compliments chilli and garlic in sauces and preserves,
and has sweet uses in jams and jellies, fruit compotes, muffins and
cheesecakes. It's usually sold frozen, but fresh fruit is often available
in season in parks and gardens.
- Cheesefruit is sold as frozen juice for flavouring cream sauces, pasta,
polenta, dips, marinades and dressings.
- Murray Sponge
An ordinary sponge can be transformed by sandwiching jam made from the
Blue Lillypilly between layers, and topping it with whipped cream blended
with ground roasted seed of Acacia fimbriata cream and decorating with
fresh Lillypilly berries.
- Dark brown wattle seed flour with its chocolate/coffee/hazelnut flavour
is used as a flavouring in many different applications, both sweet and
savoury, and as a hot drink, and is sold both ground and in manufactured
products.
- Burdekin plums makes good preserves and a reasonable wine
- GRASS LILY (tall grass) - Traditionally used in healing burns, cuts,
abrasions, facilitating rapid healing through multiple cell division.
Relieves itching, bites, skin irritations. An excellent moisturising
extract that penetrates the skin and is easily absorbed. (Shave Creme,
After Shave Balm and Face and Body Moisturiser, Foot Gel and Paw Paw
Creme)
- BLUE CYPRESS OIL (cypress tree bark) - Anti-microbial, anti-bacterial
like Tea Tree and with similar healing properties. Excellent for cleansing
the skin and scalp. This oil produces a fresh and masculine natural
aroma. (After Shave Balm, Moisturiser, Shampoo, Conditioner and Treatment).
- ANISEED MYRTLE (tonic herb) - Related to Lemon Myrtle with anti bacterial
properties. Invigorating and stimulating aniseed fragrance. Awakens
the senses, excellent for preparing the skin for shaving and toning
the skin. (Shave Creme)
- NATIVE AUSTRALIAN ALOE VERA - Organic aloe provides the soothing,
healing properties which make up the base of the VitaMan skincare and
haircare product range. (After Shave Balm, Moisturiser, Shower Gel,
Shave Creme, Shampoo, Conditioner and Scrub)
Bush Foods of the Cadigal People
- Heath Banksia (Banksia ericifolia)
Wad-ang-gari
At certain times of the year the flowers of wad-ang-gari, or heath banksia,
are literally dripping with nectar. The Cadigal soaked them in water
to produce a sweet, high-energy drink.
- Burrawang (Macrozamia communis)
Burrawang seeds are extremely poisonous but, because they contain starch,
are also highly nutritious. The trick is knowing how to remove the seeds'
poison. The Cadigal pounded and soaked the seeds in water for a week,
changing the water daily. The pulp was then made into cakes and roasted
over hot embers.
- Rock Lily (Dendrobium speciosum)
Wara-gal-darra
The starchy stems of this orchid were eaten raw by the Cadigal people,
or after roasting them over hot coals.
- Bracken Fern (Pteridium esculentum)
Gur-gi
During winter particularly, the Cadigal chewed or beat out a sticky,
nutritious starch from the rhizomes (swollen roots) of this fern.
Roots were an important food source because they could be dug up all
year round. The earth acts as a natural storage cupboard.
- Paperbark tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia)
Bujor
Touch the soft papery bark of a Melaleuca tree and you'll understand
why it was so important to the Cadigal. The Cadigal used the bark as
sleeping mats, for lean-to shelters, for dressing wounds and for wrapping
delicate objects - like newborn babies. The bark was also used for wrapping
food for cooking and for making bandages and disposable raincoats. Hold
up one of its leaves to the light to see its shiny oil glands, then
crush it to smell its aromatic oils.
Bush foods of the Darug people
The seasonal cycles of plants dictated Darug people's movement around
their territories. Their staple diet was the plentiful edible lily tuber
that they replanted each season in the rich alluvial river flats around
the Hawkesbury-Nepean (Deerubin) River. Replanting and fire management
ensured the seeds and root-stock continued to provide food for the family
as they passed through the floodplain and lagoon country when the mullet
were running.
Darug people knew how to time their journeys when nectars, berries and
fruits could be collected on the plains and in the mountains. Most other
plant and animal foods were seasonal, and common in different places at
different times throughout the year.
Traditionally, plants were used in multiple ways. Xanthorrhoea (grass-tree)
is a good example. The flowers are a good source of nectar; the flower
stalk could be used for making lightweight fishing spears and also as
the drill base for fire making (friction created by a smaller stick inserted
and rubbed in the hollow centre will quickly smoulder); the spiky leaves
could be woven and their white bases could be eaten when young. The resin
from the trunk was also used as a glue - one use was to bond barbs onto
spear heads.
Flowers such as wattles and banksias were shaken with water in a coolomon
- a hollowed out wooden vessel made from a section of knotted tree trunk
- to make a sweet drink.
Wild honey nests and other treats, like juicy grubs, were also collected
from trees. Women's digging sticks and men's wooden clubs were useful
to dig for yams and tubers. Grinding stones were used to make flour from
seeds and for removing plant poisons. Before the seeds of the burrawang
(Macrozamia) could be eaten, they were pounded and placed in running water
for up to two weeks to remove the toxin. After this they could be dried
and ground again to make flour then formed into flat rounds of bread or
'johnny cakes', that were cooked over hot coals.
Captain Dawes, one of the officers of the First Fleet and a keen linguist,
described food plants belonging to three categories:
Wigi are berry-like fruits including the tyibung (geebung or Persoonia),
burrawang tukuba (probably the native cherry), marrinmara, magar, bomula,
mirriburu and twiwaragang.
Another ground of food plants are those recorded by Dawes as 'flowers
bearing honey in sufficient quantity to render them notorious' - such
as watangal (a banksia), ngurumaradyi, wiyigalung, koamea, warata (waratah),
kamarang, burudun and mirrigaylang.
Other edible fruits included three kinds of lillipilli, native raspberry,
native passionfruit, bolwarra, ground berries (five corners), native cherries,
native grapes, native currants, native orange, native mulberry, figs,
kangaroo apples and geebungs.'
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