Bushfood
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The word Bushfood refers to any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by the original inhabitants, the Australian Aborigines. although it is sometimes used with the specific connotation of "food found in the Outback while living on the land". It is also called bush tucker. It includes both animal and plant foods native to Australia.
More recently the food industry refers to gourmet bushfoods as authentic Australian foods.
Examples of Australian native animal foods (meats) include kangaroo, emu and crocodile. In particular, kangaroo is quite common and can be found in many normal supermarkets at prices comparable to beef. Other animals, for example goanna and witchetty grubs, were eaten by Aboriginal Australians and thus qualify as bushfood in every sense of the word. Fish and shellfish are culinary features of the Australian coastal communities.
Examples of Australian native plant foods include the fruits: quandong (Santalum acuminatum), Australian desert raisin (Solanum centrale), muntries (Kunzea pomifera), riberry (Syzygium luehmannii), Davidson's plum (Davidsonia spp.), and, Finger Lime (Citrus australasica). Native spices include lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora), mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata), and, aniseed myrtle (Anetholia anisata). A popular leafy vegetable is warrigal greens (Tetragonia tetragonoides).
Nuts include bunya nut (Araucaria bidwillii), and the most identifiable bushfood plant harvested and sold in large scale commercial quantities is the macadamia nut (Macadamia integrifolia).
Knowledge of Aboriginal uses of fungi is meagre but Fistulina hepatica and Native bread (Laccocephalum mylittiae) were certainly eaten.
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[edit] Traditional Aboriginal use
Australian Aborigines have eaten native animal and plant foods for an estimated 60,000 years of human habitation on the Australian continent (see Indigenous Australian food groups, Australian Aboriginal sweet foods).
Various traditional methods of processing and cooking are used. Toxic seeds, such as Cycad (Cycas media) and Moreton Bay Chestnut (Castanospermum australe) are processed to remove the toxins and render them safe to eat. Many foods are also baked in the hot campfire coals, or baked for several hours in ground ovens. ‘Paperbark’, the bark of Melalauca species, is widely used for wrapping food placed in ground ovens. Bush bread was made by women using many types of seeds, nuts and corms to process a flour or dough to make bread.
Aboriginal traditional native food use has been severely impacted by non-indigenous immigration, especially in the more densely colonised areas of south-eastern Australia since 1788. There, loss of traditional lands has resulted in reduced access to native foods by Aborigines. This impact on traditional foods has been further accentuated by the destruction of native habitat for agriculture, and the introduction of non-native foods to Aborigines by colonists.
The recent recognition of the nutritional and gourmet value of native foods by non-indigenous Australians is introducing native cuisine to white Australians, many for the first time. However, there are unresolved intellectual property issues associated with the commercialisation of bushfood.
[edit] Colonial use
Bushfoods provided a source of nutrition to the non-indigenous colonial settlers, often supplementing meager rations. However, bushfoods were often considered to be inferior by colonists unfamiliar with the new land's food ingredients, generally preferring familiar foods from the homeland.
The only Australian native food developed and cropped on a large scale is the macadamia nut, with the first small-scale commercial plantation being planted in Australia in the 1880s. Subsequently, Hawaii was where the macadamia was commercially developed to its greatest extent from stock imported from Australia.
[edit] Modern use
In the 1970s non-indigenous Australians began to recognise the previously over-looked indigenous aspects of Australia, including native foods. Textbooks like Wildfoods In Australia by the botanist couple, Cribb & Cribb were popular and later the author Tim Low published Wild Food Plants of Australia and Vic Cherikoff contributed to Jenifer Isaacs' book, Bushfood and wroteThe Bushfood Handbook himself.
TV shows also made use of the bushfood theme. Malcolm Douglas was one of the first presenters to show how to 'live off the land' in the Australian Outback. Major Les Hiddins, a retired Australian Army soldier popularized the idea of bush tucker as an interesting food resource. He presented a hit TV series called Bush Tucker Man on the ABC TV network in the late 1980s. In the series, Hiddins demonstrated his research for Norforce in identifying foods which might sustain or augment army forces in the northern Australian Outback.
It was not until Vic Cherikoff began his research into the nutritional composition of Australian Aboriginal bushfoods at the University of Sydney's Human Nutrtion Unit in 1983 that these food began to be commercialized and available to the food industry. Cherikoff selected the commercial range of species from the 450 or more different sample he had analysed during his research. These included some species which bushfood enthusiasts around Australia had been growing as interesting ornamentals and potential food plants. This laid the foundations for the development of the modern bushfood industry (see bushfood industry history).
From the early-1980s, several Sydney restaurants began using native Australian ingredients, supplied by Cherikoff's Bush Tucker Supply company, in recipes more familiar to modern tastes. This provided the first opportunity for bushfoods to be tried by non-indigenous Australians on a serious gourmet level. and led to the realisation that many strongly flavoured bushfoods have spice-like qualities. Some of these bushfood ingredients now feature in modern Australian cuisine, and Australian spices are being increasingly recognised internationally.
Value-added bushfood products were also developed for the domestic and export markets. The raw ingredients were initially sourced from the wild and more recently cultivated using largely organic methods with an emphasis on maintaining sustainable quantities from both sources. Many Aboriginal communities continue to be involved in the supply chain and in investigating other socially abd culturally appropriate opportunities.
In the last decade, industry groups such as the Southern Bushfood Association, the Queensland Bushfood Association, the Northern Bushfood Association, and many others have been pushing for the introduction of bushfood as genuine cuisine in Australian and international restaurants.
The term "bushfood" is one of several terms describing native Australian food, evolving from the older-style "bushtucker" which was used in the 1970s and 1980s. The word "bushfood" was chosen to reflect the sustainable nature of the industry's products, and to help exporters with product branding. The term "authentic Australian food" is another term recently coined to create further separation from the more rustic bush connotations.
[edit] Authentic Australian food-plants listed by culinary province and plant part
Australian bushfood plants can be divided into several distinct and large regional culinary provinces. Please note, some species listed grow across several climatic boundaries.
[edit] Top-end
Monsoonal zone of the Northern Territory, Cape York and Western Australia.
[edit] Fruits
| Buchanania arborescens | Little Gooseberry Tree |
| Citrus gracilis | Kakadu Lime |
| Eugenia carissoides | Cedar Bay Cherry |
| Ficus racemosa | Cluster Fig |
| Manilkara kaukii | Wongi |
| Melastoma affine | Blue Tongue |
| Mimusops elengi | Tanjong |
| Morinda citrifolia | Noni |
| Physalis minima | Native Gooseberry |
| Terminalia ferdinandiana | Kakadu Plum |
| Syzygium suborbiculare | Lady Apple |
[edit] Vegetables
| Cycas media | Cycad palm seeds (Require detoxification: see Bush bread ) | |
| Dioscorea alata | Chinese or winged yam Dioscorea transversa |
Pencil Yam, Long Yam |
| Dioscorea bulbifera | Round Yam | |
| Eleocharis sp. | Mat-Rush, a traditional staple for Yolngu | |
| Ipomoea aquatica | Native Kang Kong | |
| Lotus nelumbo | Lotus | |
| Nelumbo nucifera | water lily | |
| Nymphaea macrosperma | water lily |
[edit] Nuts
| Semecarpus australiensis | Australian Cashew Nut |
| Terminalia catappa | Sea Almond |
[edit] Spices
| Eucalyptus staigeriana | Lemon Ironbark |
| Melaleuca leucadendron | Weeping Paperbark |
| Ocimum tenuiflorum | Native Basil |
[edit] Central Australia
Arid and semi-arid zones of the low rainfall interior.
[edit] Fruits
| Capparis spp. | Native Caper, Caperbush |
| Capparis mitchelii | Wild orange |
| Capparis spinosa ssp. nummularia |
Wild passionfruit |
| Carissa lanceolata | Bush plum, Conkerberry |
| Citrus glauca | Desert Lime |
| Enchylaena tormentosa | Ruby Saltbush |
| Ficus platypoda | Desert Fig |
| Marsdenia australis | Doubah, Bush Banana |
| Owenia acidula | Emu Apple |
| Santalum acuminatum | Quandong |
| Santalum lanceolatum | Sandalwood |
| Solanum centrale | Akudjura, Australian Desert Raisin, Bush tomato |
| Solanum cleistogarnum | Bush tomato |
| Solanum ellipticum | Bush tomato |
[edit] Vegetables
| Calandrinia balonensis | Parakeelya |
| Ipomoea costata | Bush potato |
| Vigna lanceolata | Pencil Yam |
| Lepidium spp. | Peppercresses |
| Portulaca intraterranea | Large Pigweed |
[edit] Spices
| Eucalyptus polybractea | Blue-leaved Mallee |
[edit] Seeds
| Acacia aneura | Mulga |
| Acacia colei | |
| Acacia coriacea | Dogwood |
| Acacia holosericea | Strap Wattle |
| Acacia kempeana | Witchetty Bush |
| Acacia murrayana | |
| Acacia pycantha | |
| Acacia retinodes | |
| Acacia tetragonophylla | Dead finish seed |
| Acacia victoriae | Gundabluey, Prickly wattle |
| Brachychiton populneus | Kurrajong |
| Panicum decompositum | native millet |
| Portulaca oleracea | Pigweed |
| Triodia spp. | commonly known as spinifex |
[edit] Insects in gall
[edit] Eastern Australia
Subtropical rainforests of New South Wales to the wet tropics of Northern Queensland.
[edit] Fruit
| Acronychia acidula | Lemon Aspen |
| Acronychia oblongifolia | White Aspen |
| Antidesma bunius | Herbet River Cherry |
| Archirhodomyrtus beckleri | Rose Myrtle |
| Austromyrtus dulcis | Midyim |
| Carpobrotus glaucescens | Pigface |
| Citrus australasica | Finger Lime |
| Citrus australis | Dooja |
| Davidsonia jerseyana | New South Wales Davidson's Plum |
| Davidsonia johnsonii | Smooth Davidsonia |
| Davidsonia pruriens | North Queensland Davidson's Plum |
| Diploglottis campbellii | Small-leaf Tamarind |
| Eupomatia laurina | Bolwarra |
| Ficus coronata | Sandpaper Fig |
| Melodorum leichhardtii | Zig Zag Vine |
| Pleiogynium timorense | Burdekin Plum |
| Podocarpus elatus | Illawarra Plum |
| Planchonella australis | Black Apple |
| Rubus hillii | Broad-leaf Bramble |
| Rubus probus | Atherton Raspberry |
| Rubus rosifolius | Rose-leaf Bramble |
| Sambucus australasica | Yellow Elderberry |
| Syzygium fibrosum | Fibrous Satinash |
| Syzygium luehmannii | Riberry |
| Ximenia americana | Yellow Plum |
[edit] Vegetable
| Geitonoplesium cymosum | Scrambling Lily |
| Tetragonia tetragonoides | Warrigal Greens |
| Trachymene incisa | Wild Parsnip |
[edit] Spices
| Alpinia coerulea | Native Ginger |
| Backhousia citriodora | Lemon Myrtle |
| Backhousia myrtifolia | Cinnamon Myrtle |
| Tasmannia stipitata | Dorrigo pepper (leaf and pepperberry) |
| Prostanthera incisa | Cut-leaf Mintbush |
| Anetholia anisata | aniseed myrtle |
[edit] Nut
| Araucaria bidwillii | Bunya Nut |
| Athertonia diversifolius | Atherton Almond |
| Macadamia integrifolia | Macadamia Nut |
| Macadamia tetraphylla | Bush Nut |
| Sterculia quadrifida | Peanut Tree |
[edit] Temperate
Warm and cool temperate zones of southern Australia, including Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and the highlands of New South Wales.
[edit] Fruit
| Acrotriche depressa | Native Currant |
| Billarderia cymosa | Sweet Apple-berry |
| Billarderia longiflora | Purple Apple-berry |
| Billarderia scandens | Common Apple-berry |
| Carpobrotus rossii | Karkalla |
| Eustrephus latifolius | Wombat berry |
| Exocarpus cupressiformis | Native Cherry |
| Gaultheria hispida | Snow Berry |
| Kunzea pomifera | Muntries |
| Rubus parvifolius | Pink-flowered Native Raspberry |
| Sambucus gaudichaudiana | White Elderberry |
[edit] Seed
| Acacia longifolia | Golden Rods |
| Acacia sophorae | Coast Wattle |
[edit] Spice
| Eucalyptus dives | Peppermint Gum |
| Eucalyptus olida | Strawberry Gum |
| Eucalyptus globulus | Tasmanian Blue Gum |
| Mentha australis | River Mint |
| Prostanthera rotundifolia | Native Thyme |
| Tasmannia lanceolata | Mountain pepper |
| Tasmannia stipitata | Dorrigo Pepper |
| Tasmannia xerophila | Alpine Pepper |
[edit] Vegetable
| Apium insulare | Flinders Island Celery |
| Atriplex cinerea | Grey Saltbush |
| Burchardia umbellata | Milkmaids |
| Microseris scapigera | Murnong |
[edit] See also
- Australian Aboriginal sweet foods
- Bush bread
- Bushmeat, something quite different
- Bush medicine
- Indigenous Australian food groups
[edit] External links
- Aboriginal Australia
- Australian Bushfood and Native Medicine Forum
- Aboriginal women's knowledge
- CSIRO plant profiles [1]
- Site of the industry pioneer
- Bushfoods Magazine
- Eat Australia
[edit] References
- Bruneteau, Jean-Paul, Tukka, Real Australian Food, ISBN 0-207-18966-8.
- Cherikoff, Vic, The Bushfood Handbook, ISBN 0-7316-6904-5.
- Issacs, Jennifer, Bushfood, Weldons, Sydney.
- Kersh, Jennice and Raymond, Edna's Table, ISBN 0-7336-0539-7.
- Low, Tim, Wild Food Plants of Australia, ISBN-13: 978-0207143830
