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Growing native edibles

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I was hoping to establish a bit of a garden now I have found accomodation and after a bit of thought I'd really like to try my hand with a few native edibles. My climate is in Sydney area and the few bush foods I do know are amongst my favourite thing to eat. I was hoping to purchase of the home page here, but if anyone knows where else I can source these plants/seeds if they may be unavailable I'd appreciate that. So if anyone could help me out with a the names of a few native edibles that would grow in my climate and be good for a starter you'd have my gratitude :)

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The unspoken truth of Australian edibles is that they're not really worth growing. There are a few exceptions, and these are:

macadamia nut

Atherton raspberry

finger limes

Davidson plum (for jam).

Cedar Bay cherry.

Beyond that, there;s really no advantage to growing native Australian edibles. You will be much better served by exotics based on a range of criteria.

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No love for red center lime? Nom nom nom marmelade :)

It's ok. It's just across between an acid mandarin and a fingerlime. The selected finger limes are better, crimson tide and red champagne are the best.

Edited by starling

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i've come across some amazing sandpaper fig specimens that consistently produce huge crops of high quality fruit that i really should be bothered to get cuttings & propagate. same goes with Eupomatia laurina (bolwarra, native guava) in my opinion when you get a good bolwarra tree, the flavor & fruit quality is extremely refined & totally delicious. i doubt it would ever be marketable to the masses but for enthusiasts it is well worth growing.. pretty easy to propagate & grow too if you can keep the frost off them. they do well under a dense canopy, so good for for food forest under-story etc.

i totally get what starling is saying but conversely i would say many Australian edibles are extremely worth growing just for the fact they are so hugely undeveloped & there is bound to be all kinds of amazing & as yet unknown things possible for anyone dedicated or crazy enough to spend their life working on it.. the fact is though, developing a marketable cultivar of something that hasn't already been developed would be a very uncertain project.. which is why so few species have been worked with..

perhaps the best bet there may be with some of the unique & deliciously scented aromatic desert species etc that could potentially make amazing spices & gourmet flavorings.. if making money is your thing though you may have a serious challenge.

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lol...I've noticed elite female mountain peppers in my travels and it always crossing my mind to clone them.

Never do though....slack bastard

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I've never tried them, but one of my friends swears that the roots of kurrajong trees are absolutrely delicious and taste like coconut.

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Thanks BA :)

 

The unspoken truth of Australian edibles is that they're not really worth growing ....

.... Beyond that, there;s really no advantage to growing native Australian edibles. You will be much better served by exotics based on a range of criteria.

No offence but I found this comment to be a bit short sighted. There is a multitude of reasons to grow native bush tucker plants, or any plants for that matter, that are not is obvious or materialistic as their productivity and potential superior taste. Some general benefits of growing bush tucker plants are outlined below.

Growing native bush tucker plants is a step towards sustainability and self-sufficiency. Native plants, particularly those that are indigenous to your area, are genetically suited to the local climate and require less water than many exotics species. Furthermore, they have co-evolved with Australias low nutrient soils, and therefore require less fertiliser input than many exotic species. Finally, such species provide habitat for a range of native fauna, particularly birds and insects. As awesome as having native fauna in the garden is in its right, they play a huge roll in pest control, reducing the need for pesticide input.

Another broad reason for growing native Australian bush tucker plants is to embrace indigenous culture, to develop and embrace a feeling of connection and kinship with the Australian landscape, and to educate others of the fascinating flora of our country. It is pretty special to be able to go for a bush walk and snack on a dozen or more types of berries, leaves and roots, and to be able to share the bounty with your companions. On a personal note, Ive taken my son on foraging expeditions for years, and hes recently germinated a Plum Pine (Podocarpus elatus) tree from a fruit he collected, a priceless lesson. Ive also seen him attempting to play with some other boys at a park to avail until he showed them how to snack on the base of Matt Rush (Lomandra longifolia) plant. Not bad for a 4.5 yo.

Finally, there are culinary and dietary reasons for growing these plants. The fruit of the Kakadu Plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana) have been proven to yield the highest levels of vitamin C of all known plant sources, and Davidson's Plum (Davidsonia spp.) have exceptional lvels of antioxidants. Many species have unique flavours that are unrivalled by their exotic counterparts, if they have them. Mountain Pepper (Tasmannia spp.) berries are typically considered to be superior to standard Black Pepper (Piper nigrum), having a much more complex taste and a stronger bite. Raw Davidsons Plum fruit tastes like a sour warhead, only juicier and more intense. While there are many other amazing tastes in native bush tucker, they are not all delicious. As Crocodile Dundee said, You can live on it but it tastes like shit.

Please refer to my useful native plant thread for more information about our fascinating flora.

As a grower of rare and exotic fruits, Im sure you can appreciate these considerations starling. Please does not regard this post as an attack on you, I'm just very passionate about this persuit :)

 

i've come across some amazing sandpaper fig specimens that consistently produce huge crops of high quality fruit .... same goes with Eupomatia laurina (bolwarra, native guava) .... for enthusiasts it is well worth growing.

He gets it!

 

i totally get what starling is saying but conversely i would say many Australian edibles are extremely worth growing just for the fact they are so hugely undeveloped & there is bound to be all kinds of amazing & as yet unknown things possible for anyone dedicated or crazy enough to spend their life working on it.. the fact is though, developing a marketable cultivar of something that hasn't already been developed would be a very uncertain project.. which is why so few species have been worked with..

As interested as I am in seeing bush tucker species selectively breed to improve their marketability, there is something pure, I think, about foraging from intact bushland, and to a lesser extent, home grown bush tucker plants. I find it interesting to watch different harvests develop and to consider the amazing knowledge and craft of our land's traditional custodians. Total respect to them :worship:

 

I've never tried them, but one of my friends swears that the roots of kurrajong trees are absolutrely delicious and taste like coconut.

Now your talking :wink:

Edited by toast
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Thanks BA :)

No offence but I found this comment to be a bit short sighted. There is a multitude of reasons to grow native bush tucker plants, or any plants for that matter, that are not is obvious or materialistic as their productivity and potential superior taste. Some general benefits of growing bush tucker plants are outlined below.

Growing native bush tucker plants is a step towards sustainability and self-sufficiency. Native plants, particularly those that are indigenous to your area, are genetically suited to the local climate and require less water than many exotics species. Furthermore, they have co-evolved with Australias low nutrient soils, and therefore require less fertiliser input than many exotic species. Finally, such species provide habitat for a range of native fauna, particularly birds and insects. As awesome as having native fauna in the garden is in its right, they play a huge roll in pest control, reducing the need for pesticide input.

Another broad reason for growing native Australian bush tucker plants is to embrace indigenous culture, to develop and embrace a feeling of connection and kinship with the Australian landscape, and to educate others of the fascinating flora of our country. It is pretty special to be able to go for a bush walk and snack on a dozen or more types of berries, leaves and roots, and to be able to share the bounty with your companions. On a personal note, Ive taken my son on foraging expeditions for years, and hes recently germinated a Plum Pine (Podocarpus elatus) tree from a fruit he collected, a priceless lesson. Ive also seen him attempting to play with some other boys at a park to avail until he showed them how to snack on the base of Matt Rush (Lomandra longifolia) plant. Not bad for a 4.5 yo.

Finally, there are culinary and dietary reasons for growing these plants. The fruit of the Kakadu Plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana) have been proven to yield the highest levels of vitamin C of all known plant sources, and Davidson's Plum (Davidsonia spp.) have exceptional lvels of antioxidants. Many species have unique flavours that are unrivalled by their exotic counterparts, if they have them. Mountain Pepper (Tasmannia spp.) berries are typically considered to be superior to standard Black Pepper (Piper nigrum), having a much more complex taste and a stronger bite. Raw Davidsons Plum fruit tastes like a sour warhead, only juicier and more intense. While there are many other amazing tastes in native bush tucker, they are not all delicious. As Crocodile Dundee said, You can live on it but it tastes like shit.

Please refer to my useful native plant thread for more information about our fascinating flora.

As a grower of rare and exotic fruits, Im sure you can appreciate these considerations starling. Please does not regard this post as an attack on you, I'm just very passionate about this persuit :)

He gets it!

As interested as I am in seeing bush tucker species selectively breed to improve their marketability, there is something pure, I think, about foraging from intact bushland, and to a lesser extent, home grown bush tucker plants. I find it interesting to watch different harvests develop and to consider the amazing knowledge and craft of our land's traditional custodians. Total respect to them :worship:

Now your talking :wink:

I only partially agree with this. From an energy in energy out perspective, native edibles just cannot compete with exotics as they tend to be low energy (but often of high nutrient vale, such as the billygoat plum/kakadu plum). They also tend to yield less apart from things like szygiums which will will give you a stomach upset if you eat too many, and you do have to eat quite a few of them to make a meal of them. There are two types of davidson plum, one is more tropical than the other and is a smaller tree. They're seasonal. All native Australian edibles are. Traditional aboriginal people lived nomadic lifestyles and followed the food cycle; they also relied heavily on game, because again, native bush foods were and are scarce and have low energy values. There are some exceptions like the bunya nut (which I've had roasted, actually very very good and a criminally underrated native nut) that played a large role in the migratory behavior of certain Tribes, but they'd eat the larvae of a moth attracted to he nut, not just the nut itself. Also, bunya nut takes a long time to bear, and is a pretty dangerous tree to have around. I've heard of a horse being killed by a falling nut from some ancient tree.

On The point on feeding native animals, believe me--they'll eat your exotics too. Possums eat the leaves of my wax jambus, and the fruit of everything. King parrots eat my jaboticaba. Bandicoots will eat my yams. A dozen or so different birds (but mostly fig birds) descend on my acerola cherry every year--which isn't a problem because I have 5 of them and they produce thousands of fruit every season. Bats eat my papaya and mangoes. Various papillon butterflies utilize my hybrid fingerlimes, rollinia and surprisingly even soursop, and natve bees do most of the pollinating at my patch. Really the only things that don't have a crack are the koalas.

On the point of pests, native birds will go where the insects are, which is around my exotics. Butcher birds, wagtails, and magpies mainly. I have one resident butchy that is virtually tame and will take food out of my hand and sit on my shoulder, when he's in the mood.

If your goal is to grow enough food to self-sustain, aussie natives just aren't a good choice and again, you will inevitably be better served by exotics. That's really just the reality of it, unfortunately. If you were homesteading or getting serious about it, the last thing you would plant out would be a native edible garden. You just couldn 't survive on on it.

If you're going to grow natives, do it because they're beautiful, hardy and of this land.

Edited by starling
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Traditional aboriginal people lived nomadic lifestyles and followed the food cycle;

maybe not check out this book https://www.magabala.com/culture-and-history/dark-emu.html

"Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia’s past is required."

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maybe not check out this book https://www.magabala.com/culture-and-history/dark-emu.html

"Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been blatantly understated in modern retellings of early Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia’s past is required."

It's not really an issue of contention that Indigenous did indeed live nomadically. They did do some things which might be considered farming. For example, if you read the reports of early explorers. they describe areas that reminded them of british parks--cleared areas. The Aboriginal people did this to create hunting grounds; they'd burn off areas, which created grass pastures which attracted roos and other small game. They'd also plant yams etcalso--but they wouldn't sit on them like a british carrot farmer. They'd spread them by division, wander off to take advantage of whatever was ins season then come back for them when they were themselves ready to be harvested. It was a beautiful system that ran like clockwork. Toowoomba is a good example--most of Towoomba was cleared before white people ever got there, believe it or not. This was actually one of the primary reasons for early conflict between the tribes and settlers. The difference between this and European farming is great however; they didn't occupy these cleared spaces year round the way a European farmer might fence of a paddock and run cattle on it. They'd move about and return to it. This is actually a much, much more intelligent way of developing food sources because areas were constantly being rested and allowed to renew. Most of the ecological problems we have in Australia are owing to the opposite process, which is to farm or run the shit out of an area until the ground is ruined. In fact , cloven hoofed animals like cattle, sheep etc actually destroy Australian soil, whereas because of the different structure of soil in Europe, they do not ruin the soil there. Things like wallabies and kangaroos are actually good for the Australian soil, because as they run they tear it up a little which creates aeration. Cattle and sheep crush our soil until it becomes dead and lifeless.

Anyway,to get back on topic, the last thing an aboriginal person could have understood would have been the concept of a fence. This is because they did not have a concept of private ownership in relation to food animals. It just didn't exist for them, because they never had any need for such a thing. Whereas Europeans had perimeters and private ownership of food animals, the Aboriginal people had shared common ground that was basically open season.The idea that someone could own the land itself would have seemed not only completely bizarre, but absolutely ridiculous from a practical perspective. Why would anyone want to stay in one spot all year round when the seasons are changing, the animals are moving around following the flowering and fruiting plants of different regions? For a indigenous person, staying in one spot would have meant starvation, struggle and strife. They followed the food cycle. There were tribal barriers, but these were negotiated by ceremonies, because all the tribes knew that they had to make exceptions because in order to eat, they had to follow the seasons, which meant transgressing barriers. This is actually what 'welcome to country' stems from. Hundreds of different tribes would converge in certain areas of QLD to celebrate bunya nut season, for example. These were important events which served both to provide sustenance but more importantly, to strengthen diplomatic bonds. There was not any precedent in the history of Indigenous civilization where a tribe said 'All this land, it's ours, and all the animals and plants that are on it are ours too, and if you kill a kangaroo on it at any point for any reason, we'll kill you'.

So when an aboriginal person saw a sheep in a paddock, they had no understanding that this was a someone's personal property. They saw an animal on land that wasn't owned by anyone, because nobody could own the land,and they speared and ate it. And when reprimanded they would have thought 'Why does the white man get to hunt on the shared commons but I don't' Why are they trying to starve me? Fuck these people'.

What you have to understand is that Europeans and the Indigenous just had totally polar opposite epistemologies relating to absolutely every single aspect of existence. It was always going to be a complete disaster. True indigenous culture was destroyed not when settlers began exterminating the indigenous, but when they handed them tins of bullied beef and bags of flour. Every single aspect of Indigenous society was related in some way to the gathering of food. When that lynchpin was removed, an entire civilization was irreparably eroded.

There's actually some early accounts of trade. The fleets would try and swap bolts of silk cloth for artifacts from local tribes, and they couldn't understand why the tribespeople refused them. The answer of course, is if you hand an indigenous person a bolt of heavy cloth, they're probably going to think 'Ok, thanks, but the fuck am I going to do with this? It weighs a tonne, and I have to carry around this useless thing for at least 15km per day, because that's how much area I have to cover to feed myself and my family. Oh--you want me to make clothes out of it? No thanks. It's 40 degrees. I'll stick to near total nudity, thanks. I do not want this'.

Edited by starling
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