{"id":306,"date":"2015-04-09T02:34:45","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T02:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/?p=306"},"modified":"2019-09-04T17:23:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T07:23:54","slug":"can-i-eat-that-a-rough-guide-to-aussie-bush-tucker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/can-i-eat-that-a-rough-guide-to-aussie-bush-tucker\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I eat that? A rough guide to Aussie bush tucker"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever stepped foot in an Outback Steakhouse you might\u00a0think Australia\u2019s native cuisine consists of a slab of beef with prawns on top. In fact, Aboriginal Australians have spent more than 60,000 years learning to live off the land (long before cows arrived). Keep your eyes peeled for this tasty\u00a0bush tucker and you\u2019ll never need to open another can of baked beans again.<\/p>\n

Desert lime<\/h3>\n
\"Few

Australian desert limes. Image c\/o Junebug Pie, Pinterest<\/p><\/div>\n

These little beauties are about the size of a grape and bursting with an intense lime flavour. They\u2019re like supermarket limes on steroids. There\u2019s no peel, so you can just cut them in half and plonk one straight into your cocktail, or squeeze one into your water bottle for a fancy bush cordial. They\u2019re packing about three times as much vitamin C as oranges so keep an eye out for their thorny shrub if you start feeling sniffly.<\/p>\n

Fancy name:<\/strong> <\/em>Citrus glauca
\nFound in:<\/em><\/strong> Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia
\nFun fact:<\/strong><\/em> Citrus glauca is the quickest citrus species in the world to grow fruit after flowering.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pepperberry<\/h3>\n
\"Pepperberries\"

Pepperberries. Image c\/o James, Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

Dark purple and about the size of a pea, these little berries pack quite a punch. They\u2019re like the Miley Cyrus of the bush tucker world \u2013 they start off sweet then turn super hardcore and intense. Grind them up for an unbeatable steak seasoning, or mix with\u00a0breadcrumbs to make a herb stuffing for your fish. The leaves are also edible and can be used a bit like a curry leaf in your camp casseroles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fancy name:<\/em><\/strong> Tasmannia lanceolata
\n<\/span>Found in:<\/em><\/strong> Tasmania and the south-east Australian mainland
\n<\/span>Fun fact:<\/em><\/strong> Pepperberries are exported to Japan for flavouring wasabi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bunya nut<\/h3>\n
\"Few

Bunya nuts. Image c\/o TreeMappa 2.0, Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

First off, don\u2019t stand under a bunya tree when it\u2019s fruiting. The cones can grow as big as soccer balls, are covered in spikes and can weigh up to 10 kilograms. So it\u2019s best to grab cones that have already fallen to the ground. You\u2019ll need an axe to crack them open, and inside you\u2019ll find up to 100 delicious nuts. They\u2019re really versatile and have the taste and texture of a nutty potato or chestnut. Grind up and make your own pesto, mix through some honey and spread on toast or whip up a creamy satay sauce over the campfire. After boiling you can even use the water to make a tasty tea.<\/p>\n

Fancy name:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>Araucaria bidwillii
\nFound in:<\/em> <\/strong>South-east Queensland
\nFun fact:<\/em><\/strong> Aussie company Maton uses the wood of the bunya tree to make soundboards for their acoustic guitars.<\/p>\n

Desert Bloodwood<\/h3>\n
\"A

Desert Bloodwood, aka bush coconut. Image c\/o Mark Marathon<\/p><\/div>\n

High up on these trees you\u2019ll find tasty bush coconuts just waiting to be devoured. But they\u2019re not just any old coconuts \u2013 they come complete with an edible grub inside. Two meals for the price of one! The female Cystococcus pomiformis (or \u201cGrub\u201d for short) attaches itself to the tree and grows a \u201cgall\u201d around herself. This gall is the coconut, and if you crack it open you\u2019ll find a delicious fleshy hull that tastes as good as any coconut you\u2019ll find in the Caribbean.\u00a0The little grub inside also tastes really sweet, thanks to a lifetime of snacking on the walls of her house (see main image for interior shot).<\/p>\n

Fancy name:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Corymbia opaca
\nFound in:<\/em> <\/strong>Desert regions of the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia.
\nFun fact:<\/em><\/strong> Only female grubs are found inside the coconuts. They mate with an unknown male through a tiny air hole, never meeting face-to-face.<\/p>\n

Muntries<\/h3>\n
\"Muntrie

Muntries. Image c\/o Takisha<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s nothing better than a glass of wine as the sun goes down over camp. Whip up\u00a0a cheese plate with a few muntries on the side and you’ve got yourself a happy hour. These little berries taste a bit like a spicy apple, and can be used in both savoury and sweet dishes. The Narrindjeri people of the Coorong in the south-east of South Australia were big fans, and used to trade muntries with other tribes. They\u2019d eat them fresh or pound them into a paste, which was dried and stored over the winter months. With up to four times more antioxidants than blueberries, you can chuck them into a fruit salad, sprinkle them onto your dessert, bake them into your pie or just munch on them like sultanas.<\/p>\n

Fancy name:<\/em><\/strong> Kunzea pomifera
\nFound in:<\/em> <\/strong>Southern coast of Australia.
\nFun fact:<\/em><\/strong> Muntries were one of the first species of Australian plants introduced in England, and have been grown there since 1889.<\/p>\n

NB. Obviously, you shouldn’t\u00a0go around popping stuff into your mouth willy-nilly. You need to ask an expert to make sure it\u2019s not poisonous and free from pesticides first.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Feature image c\/o Tourism Australia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keep your eyes peeled for this tasty bush tucker and you\u2019ll never need to open another can of baked beans again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[59,34,160,241],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","tag-food","tag-indigenous","tag-indigenous-culture","tag-native-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2249,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/2249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adventuretours.com.au\/australia-outback-yarns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}