Aussie Bush Tucker

When you think about Australia what are some of the first things that come to mind? Emu, crocodile, kangaroo? What about yabbies, eels, witchetty grubs, goanna and honey ants? What would you say if I said these are all animals and insects that make up part of our unique bush tucker food source?

Native heritage

The likes of the kangaroo and emu feature on the Australian coat of arms as well as appearing on our dinner plates by those embracing the so-called true Australian culture. But what happens if you choose not to eat our most recognisable assets?

Welcome botanical produce such as bush tucker spices, vegetables and fruits; this our preferred choice of Australian native flora. It is estimated there are up to 5,000 native food species but with the loss of our traditional land and the abandonment of our traditional style of cooking our native ways of horticulture and cooking seem to have fallen by the way side.  The good news in 2019 is that we are seeing a revival and a growing education too creating and cooking with some of the oldest foods known to man; this can only be of benefit to continuing true Australian culture.

Planted Life promotes the benefits of eating ethically with a sustainable mindset focussing on foods that are adapted to the environment we live in. We believe you can’t get more sustainable and ecologically sounds than bush tucker foods. So what do you know about our heritage foods?

Heritage Foods

Fruits & Vegetables

• Burdekin plums
• Brush cherries
• Bush cucumber
• Cedar bay cherries
• Davidson’s plums
• Desert lime
• Finger limes
• Illawarra plum
• Kadadu plum
• Quandongs
• Riberry
• Warrigal Greens
• Murnong (Yam daisy)
• Choiromyces Aboriginum (truffle like fungus)
• Kumara 

Nuts & seeds

• Macadamia nuts
• Peanut
• Australian cashew
• Cycad palm seeds

Bush Tucker Herbs

• Kutjera (bush tomato)
• Lemon myrtle
• Native pepper leaf
• Wattleseed
• Saltbush flakes
• Native river mint flakes
• Aniseed myrtle
• Mountain pepper

Flowers

• Native rosella flower

Know your flora

Unless you know your native bush tucker and know it well, pick wisely when out bushwalking or running the trails and stopping for a native pick me up for some flora is poisonous; in some cases, looks can be deceiving.

Read up on your flora, visit a garden nursery or speak to a chef/cook who regularly cooks with our local bush tucker for advice on what you should be looking for when foraging in the wild.  Alternatively, source cafes and restaurants who are creating with such innovative foods.

Resources

Want to taste, read and learn more about bush tucker? Our favourite resources are listed below.

The Foodprint Experience
111 Franklin Street, Adelaide
Web: The Foodprint Experience

Bill the Bush Tucker Boy by Rebecca Mumford
Web: Greenhill Living Garden Gang

SBS Food Safari
Web: SBS Bush Tucker

Outback Pride
Web: Outback Pride