Dharawal Delights

A New Year's foraging expedition.

A sample of New Year’s forage. Keep reading for identification! © JPM, 2024.

Firstly, a blessed and prosperous new year to my readership! My numbers have been slowly ticking upwards despite 2023 being a relatively quiet year in terms of my literary output, although checking my dashboard reveals I wrote 15 articles last year (most of them were written between January and June). I’m sure most of you do not care too much about my casual output as long as my articles remain free (they will), and remain quality (they will).

Six of my last seven articles have been about my varied holiday foraging forays in 2023, short or long, and I hope to continue into 2024 with articles of this type. I still have one recent week-long trip in early December I need to compile and that article will be coming hopefully within the next few weeks. In addition, I do hope to find more time in 2024 to complete my laborious and exhaustive treatment of individual bush food items not heretofore covered, as well as some updates to other earlier articles. I have found some amazing tucker of late, the kind that brings a smile to your face when you utter, “So good!”

In this edition of Bush Food Forager, I will detail a relatively short New Year’s Day trip to one of my favourite places, the Australian Botanical Gardens at Mt. Annan. One of the reasons I love it is because it is truly packed with both native and non-native edibles of all sorts: figs, hibiscus, lilly pillies, murlindj, karkalla, kurrajongs, pigweed, amaranth, chenopodium, even (inedible?!) macadamias can be found here for the astute bush food foraging student!

With no further ado, let’s see what I found!

Geebungs (Persoonia pinifolia, left) were in full summer bloom! The ripe fruit (budding fruit visible on the left of image) will still be a while away and will not be to everyone’s taste. Tim Low’s description of them as “sweet cotton wool” cannot be improved upon! © JPM, 2024.

You can read more about our geebungs [HERE]. Note that different species flower and fruit at vastly different times of the year.

All kinds of native Australian figs can be viewed and tasted in the park's Fig Row. Left, unripe creek sandpaper figs (Ficus coronata); right is a delicious, sweet and juicy Moreton Bay fig (F. macrophylla) and I forget what the centre ones are because they were not yummy at all. © JPM, 2024.

You can read more about our native figs [HERE]. Many native figs fruit prolifically, two or three times per year.

Mulindj or pink lime (Glycosmis trifoliata) is a common northern tropics fruit. The taste is pleasant: juicy, acidic, sweetish with peppery notes. Each fruit contains one or two (inedible?) green seeds that resemble peas. No detailed article on this item yet exists at Bush Food Forager. © JPM, 2024.

The absolute star of this trip, the Garden's singular peanut tree (Sterculia quadrifida) was finally in fruit! And what a bright, unavoidable fruit it is! Unripe fruit (top left) resemble an apricot, but are tough, woody pods. When fully ripe, they fold in half to reveal the tasty payload. The black seeds care easily removed from the woody pods (this tree is closely related to the kurrajong) and have no irritating hairs and roasted for consumption. No detailed article yet exists on Bush Food Forager for this item. © JPM, 2024.

Karkalla (Carpobrotus glaucescens, pictured) always makes a delectable appearance! © JPM, 2024.

You can read more about karkalla [HERE].

The lilly pillies are putting on a summer show of 'snow'! Beloved by lorikeets and bees alike, all Syzygium flowers have stores of sweet nectar which can be extracted into a drink after one strains the ants out. The fruit is also edible, can can range from crisp, juicy and tart (Syzygium australe, pictured), to soft and sweet (S. luehmanni, not pictured). © JPM, 2024.

You can read more about the fantastic properties of native lilly pillies [HERE].

Australia has many native hibiscus and some of them produce edible rosellas (Hibiscus heterophyllus, all pictures). I just can't seem to find a ripe one! Bush Food Forager is yet to compile a detailed article on this material. © JPM, 2024.

Scurvy weed is a native commelina (probably C. cyanea, pictured). A common scrambling weedy native, it can be easily confused with the white flowered Tradescantia. It is basically flavourless, and can be eaten raw in salads or cooked. It is an excellent source of vitamin C. No detailed article on Bush Food Forager yet exists for this plant. © JPM, 2024.

Two similar looking native weeds, the smooth-leaved goosefoot (Chenopodium glaucum, top) and green amaranth (Amaranthus viridus, bottom) make fine substitute for spinach in all manner of cooked dishes, like horta & ricotta pastries. My wife blanches them, mixes them with 1/2 tsp fresh minced garlic and a splash of soy sauce to make Korean-style namul. The seeds of amaranth are particularly nutritious to boot. © JPM, 2024.

You can read more about goosefoot [HERE]; sadly my article on the summer weed, amaranth, is not yet complete.

As I was driving out of the Garden via the long way, I noticed a neglected rock outcropping covered with a familiar summer weed. Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is one of those amazingly neglected weeds that is *so* good for our nutrition. This stand was the biggest and healthiest patch of purslane I have ever seen in my life! I will return for you soon, omega-3 fatty weed! © JPM, 2024.

You can read more about purslane’s millennia of use and incredible nutritional qualities [HERE]. A side effect of this harvest was taking home a plastic bag with about 1 billion purslane seeds in it which I tossed haphazardly on my balcony pots in the hope some will keep me company next year and I won’t need to leave my house to harvest this wonderful vegetable.

There will be no flower pron included in this article because there were just too many summer flowers at the Australian Botanical Garden to photograph in a day. Get down there yourself for a great day out; there’s something to see (and eat!) in every season!

My escapade to Australia’s alpine region will be my next installment here at the Bush Food Forager. Until then, may this new year be one chock full of fabulous forage for one and all.

Remember: the forest is providential and friendly, not foreign and ferocious!