Red's Bush Tucker thread

[RedPhoenix]

Red, have you ever tried the ripe fruit of native pigface? (the one with the pink flowers is the native variety) The skin is a little tough, but you can simply suck the contents out...not like anything else I've tasted, so I can't describe it, but it's good!

Sure have Rose. Page 2 of this thread covers them. I agree - they're bloody hard to classify from a taste perspective.
.. though it's best to eat them early in the day, they ferment reasonably quickly in the sunshine.

Red.

[Rose]

Whoops...looks like I've missed a page! Back to page 2 then, to read what I overlooked...

[Seasquirt]

Hi Red,

Bushtucker has long been a favourite interest of mine. Since moving to my current location I have had a renewed pleasure in discovering new plants.

Hope you don't mind me posting a few pics here.

The three listed below are all sweet and tasty but a bit hard to find until you know how and when to look for them.
Cheers
Pam

[Seasquirt]

The appleberries above are found in many places along the east coast but more likely to be found in places away from populations and growing like a vine .The fruits taste so much like kiwi fruit but are very small.

The snow bush is fairly limited to the colder areas but abundant in open bushland as a small bush. The fruits are sweet and tasty.

Native parsnip is almost a weed and can be found almost everywhere but usually on open stony ground therefore the tubers are quite small. They are oh so tasty and just like mini carrots but white. Cut the tops off and replant if eating them. I have planted quite a few in my garden so await the results but they are slow growing.
The leaves look very like a carrot or parsley.

I am eagerly waiting for summer to arrive and the abundant native cherries to fruit. We also have plenty of broad leaved geebungs which have green fruit at the moment waiting to ripen.

There are lots of the black nightshade berries which ( despite the name ) are very edible, sweet and slightly aniseed in flavour. Also from the same family is the kangaroo apple ( solanum ) but they are extremely poisonous unless completely ripe and shrivelled up. I am not game to eat them.

In March we have the very un -native blackberry which I pick eagerly.

[RedPhoenix]

Hope you don't mind me posting a few pics here.

VERY happy to have you post them Pam!

Good call on the kangaroo apples. I've had one before.. I don't reckon the taste is worth the risk, unless you're in really dire straights.

I'm waiting for one of my native rainforest raspberries to start fruiting at the moment; I'll chuck up some pictures when it's out & about.

Red.

[Rose]

Red, do you know of any reason why the red berries on the warragul greens can't be eaten? There are plenty of them at the moment, but I only know folks who've eaten the leaves. Is it reasonable to assume that because the leaves are edible, the berries are also?

I ate a couple and I didn't die, that has to be a good sign...

[RedPhoenix]

Rose, not actually sure that is warrigal greens mate - the ones around this way have a green fruit with a yellow flower on the end, that doesn't develop into red berries. The backs of the leaves also have a completely green backbone, whereas the ones in your photo seem to have a reddish tinge to them?

Localised variety perhaps?

Any more photos that might help identify them? Looks vaguely like saltbush berries to me at first glance.. did they taste sweet initially, then sorta sour after approx 30 seconds?

Red.

[Rose]

The berries were sweet Red...no particular after-taste. Definitely not that slight bitterness you get with saltbush.

Those leaves are not very good examples, they're very tatty and discoloured. I've always understood this plant to be warrigul...we eat the leaves often, they taste slightly salty, but otherwise just fresh and...well, like something you'd put in a salad. I photographed that section of a plant because it had lots of berries, but usually the leaves are much greener than that, and don't have any reddish tinge on the spines. That plant looks a bit spotty and starved, I wouldn't eat those leaves, I always go for the nice plump green ones. I haven't seen the flowers, if they were on the ends of the berries, they must have already fallen off. I'll get a better photo of the leaves as soon as possible.

[Barrabundy]

I've somehow missed this thread. Around the farm where my house is I planted a heap of native trees about 15 years ago. One of my selection criteria was that they must attract wildlife and produce bush-tucker where possible. I'll try and get some photos to post of a few that haven't been mentioned here so far. There are only a couple that I eat although there are many more that are edible, they just taste like crap.

One tree that's in fruit now is the Damson Plum (Terminalia microcarpa).

Damson Pum (slightly under-ripe but the birds beat me to the ripe ones!

The fruit is small, almond shaped with a furry skin like a peach. You usually only get ripe fruit on low hanging branches because that's the only place the birds will leave it alone. Because the fruit is so small I pick a cupfull or so and shove them in my mouth half a handfull at a time. Chew, chew and spit the seeds out.

Cluster Fig (Ficus racemosa) is another common one and I have a few of those too. You can get good quantities of fruit for every month except May but they are a little like KFC...you need to eat them in the dark so you don't see the grubs you're also eating...they're always full of them!

Leichardt Pine (Nauclea orientalis) are another local species I have. They produce a good sized fig type fruit but the seeds are bitter. The leaves and bark have medicinal properties...if you're aboriginal.

and the list goes on, but not very interesting without the pics, I'll out some up when I ge the chance.

A couple of photos now added.
Another one I've got growing around home is the Burdekin Plum (Pleiogynum timorense). Here are some immature fruit from the first fruiting of this tree. I propogated it from wild seed I collected in the area.

Immature Burdekin Plum in my yard

They take a long time to ripen and they have a huge seed with little flesh around it. They tast not too bad for bush tucker but they are very dry...like a cab-sav

More to come as they fruit.

[scater]

Here's an interesting one from up here that actually grows in my front yard, the sandpaper fig. It's just started to fruit now as we get further into the dry season. The figs are supposed to be really tasty - I can't wait. The other cool thing about this tree is the incredibly rough leaves which are used as sandpaper in traditional spear making to smooth the shafts. I'm not sure if you see them in the photo but this tree is also a favorite with the little green-bummed ants which taste like lemon lime.

[Barrabundy]

I think you'll be very surprised at how un-tasty they are scater, sorry to disappoint. I'll also be surprised if you find one that actually ripens without getting bitten/eaten by creepy crawlies. Maybe we have a differently balanced/unbalanced ecosystem here.

[scater]

I'm just going on what Les Hiddins has to say about them at this stage but yeah, keeping the pests off them until they're ripe sounds like the main challenge

[Joel]

GUYS GUYS GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eating the native spinach/warrigal greens/Tetragonia tetragonioides raw is not a good idea! It contains potentially high levels of calcium oxalates and could leave you really regretting the whole experience. It must be blanched to remove these substances that otherwise form crystals in your blood and severe pain.

Joel

[RedPhoenix]

Joel is correct - the NZ Spinach contain oxolates, and is worthy of caution if copious amounts are eaten raw.

Note though, that eating a food with oxolate does not necessarily lead to a level that our livers cannot cope with - there are many things in our diet that contain oxalic acid, including regular spinach, sorrel, rhubarb, buckwheat, star fruit, black pepper, parsley, poppy seed, amaranth, spinach, chard, beets, cocoa, chocolate, most nuts, most berries.. and so on.

The concentrations vary, but in general, are reported to be slightly over spinach, and well under rhubarb in warrigal greens.

Normal spinach-level precautions are recommended by those in the know - use young leaves, blanch, and discard the water.

Red.