Author Topic: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?  (Read 4433 times)

sildanani

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What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« on: October 26, 2015, 07:50:24 PM »
I just bought some Blue Lilly Pilly seeds from Tradwinds fruit. I want to know of some other bush foods worth adding to my collection. I am interested in the eating quality more than the fruit as an ornamental.
Anisha

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2015, 05:19:15 PM »
fingerlimes?

Luisport

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2015, 05:24:16 PM »
Syzygium oleosum?

druss

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2015, 06:41:12 PM »
Nuts: macadamias obviously. Athertonia are ok, sterculia are also not bad, bunya nuts if you have time to wait, terminalia catappa or cunninghamii are both not bad. or acacia and brachychiton if you want to make flour. Do not try native cashew: semecarpus.
Fruit; fingerlimes, native elderberry are better than European elder, theres a good rubus species or two that like warm weather but could be weedy, davidsonia are sour fresh but make great preserves, buchania kakadu plum, cocky apple, terminalia ferdinandiana, planchonella and diospyros are average along with the native garcinia.
Just a few and remember most bush foods are lacking in selection and breeding. Theres potential if you have time.

BMc

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2015, 07:20:48 PM »
Hicksbeachia are really good nuts. Very hard to send viable seed though. And boy are they fussy! I've got to try one more time now that I think of it.
If you are after fresh eating fruit, pickings are fairly slim. If you make chutney, its heaven. Diploglottis campbellii and fingerlime chutney cant be beat!
A few other diploglottis are decent fresh, but most of the easily obtainable ones are very acid and sour - imagine a small lychee, but the juice doesn't spill from the flesh until broken (arils can be easily peeled from the seed) and tasting like pure sour orange with extra acid and a touch of Worcestershire sauce... But D smithii and D macarantha are better out of hand.
A friend who lives in a shack north east of Coen in the rainforest sometimes sends me images of fruits that look great and she says taste good - syzygium, garcinia, etc, but I have no idea what they are. Hoping to go up soon to try a few out for myself!
Mischarytera can be good.
Austromyrtus crosses (dulcis x tenuifolia) can have very worthwhile small grazing fruit too.

druss

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2015, 07:41:46 PM »
Forgot the diploglottis. Also I have the native longan dimocarpus australianus  which appears to be flowering for the first time. I'm hoping to find seeds of horsfieldia this year, probably the only native myristiceae worth growing, apparently the other native nutmegs arent worth it.

barath

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2015, 07:50:15 PM »
Forgot the diploglottis. Also I have the native longan dimocarpus australianus  which appears to be flowering for the first time. I'm hoping to find seeds of horsfieldia this year, probably the only native myristiceae worth growing, apparently the other native nutmegs arent worth it.

How is the flavor of the Australian native Longan?  What is its growing range / conditions?

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2015, 08:46:56 PM »
My favorite so far (Meiogyne cylindrocarpa) :

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=514.0


Not a top notch fruit, but still a decent little annona fruit that is worth growing and eating !

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druss

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2015, 10:03:13 PM »
Don't have meiogyne yet, am chasing uvaria holtzei.

RodneyS

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2015, 10:26:17 PM »
Does fingersop need to be hand-pollinated?

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2015, 10:48:18 PM »
Does fingersop need to be hand-pollinated?

no it sets all sorts of fruit without any help.

cold tolerant easily withstanding a freeze, and has nice smelling flowers like banana shrub.
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Mike T

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #11 on: October 28, 2015, 12:29:53 AM »
There are a few Syzygiums that are worthwhile but none of these except S.fibrosum are in cultivation. S.suborbiculare is pretty good.Diploglottis macrantha seems to be the best I have tried in that genus but some of the subtropical types seem a bit more sour and tomatoey.Athertonia and hicksbeachea are pretty good.Native Malay apple is terrible by the way,wongai isn't bad,burden plum is variable but some are alright.Elaeagnus triflora is pretty good and like fruity tomato.I am yet to have any good native Annonas including the vines.

Anyway there is a whole lot of species that are just ok or unusual and plenty that need a bit of treatment to make them useable.

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #12 on: October 28, 2015, 02:05:21 PM »
if I'm not mistaken there are several varieties (or maybe even species?) of Meiogyne from Australia.

there must be superior selections...but I bet they are near impossible to track down...and still would be a dooryard fruit at best.

as an annona lover, and especially an Asimina lover...I  like to imagine this fruit as a "Poor Bushman's Banana", being like a paw paw (not really in terms of flavor, but definitely in terms of fruit shape and internal composition).  As for the flavor, which is very hard to describe: the fruit is not extremely sweet, but has nice a hint of sugar apple (floral sweetness),the portion near the center of the fruit, and around the seeds is the sweetest part.  The pulp texture like a slightly mealy custard apple.  I avoid eating the skin because it's not sweet, although I hear its edible.

seems to fruit continuously, or at least for 4-6 months out of the year.

definitely a tree for a plant collector and annona lover, but not for someone who's looking for the next top notch rare fruit.

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sildanani

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #13 on: October 29, 2015, 07:46:03 PM »
Syzygium oleosum?
I just purchased some. What about them do you
like? Describe the flavor?
Anisha

sildanani

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #14 on: October 29, 2015, 07:53:59 PM »
There are a few Syzygiums that are worthwhile but none of these except S.fibrosum are in cultivation. S.suborbiculare is pretty good.Diploglottis macrantha seems to be the best I have tried in that genus but some of the subtropical types seem a bit more sour and tomatoey.Athertonia and hicksbeachea are pretty good.Native Malay apple is terrible by the way,wongai isn't bad,burden plum is variable but some are alright.Elaeagnus triflora is pretty good and like fruity tomato.I am yet to have any good native Annonas including the vines.

Anyway there is a whole lot of species that are just ok or unusual and plenty that need a bit of treatment to make them useable.
Wow, I haven't even heard of some of those. Do you know any info on S. curranii? I am growing one plant but wasn't sure if it was dioecious.
Anisha

Luisport

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Re: What are some Australian Bush Foods Worth Growing?
« Reply #15 on: October 30, 2015, 05:54:33 AM »
Syzygium oleosum?
I just purchased some. What about them do you
like? Describe the flavor?
Well i don't know, i was hasking too... maby i wasn't very explicit...  :)