Gardening Australia: Understanding bush foods

CLARENCE SLOCKEE:

Jingawal - or G'day in Bundjalung. We're here in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney and this is the traditional lands of the Gadigal. We acknowledge the ancestors of the Darug and Eora nations and even the cockatoos that are here behind me, they're acknowledging that fact. Aboriginal people have lived, thrived and survived in this country for over 40,000 years. And let's face it, you don't get to live somewhere that long that well without having an intimate understanding of your environment. Now, that's a lot different to what happened 222 years ago when the First Fleet landed here in Farm Cove, or as we call it Wuganmagali. Now, they tried to create a little bit of rural England here and the first thing they did was plant corn. They tried to kick off that first farm. Very little idea about the seasonal differences and the climate. And you know what? They failed. Part of the reason why it failed was that when the Europeans looked around in those early days, they saw this lush, green vegetation. What they failed to realise about Australian natives, they've adapted over millions of years to these harsh conditions - the poor soil, the lack of rainfall. Aboriginal people had worked out over thousands of years of habitation what we could eat, where it was, when it was growing. It's like one gigantic supermarket. I'm going to show you some of those plants now. A great thing about Australian natives, many of the flowers of our natives produce a lot of nectar. That's primarily to encourage pollinators. But for Aboriginal people, it also means a great food source - the nectar. Simple sugars that provide a lot of energy. We can mix it with water for a sweet drink, or if you like, check there are no bees on it... ..get it straight from the source. Beautiful. Here's a rainforest fruit that falls when it's ripe. And check out how many actually fall. This is great. This is the Black Apple or Planchonella. A very sweet bush food, really nice to eat. This one's all up and down the east coast. And the skin, we can use that for dye. And another good source of nectar are Kangaroo Paws. Now, they're not from around here. These guys are WA natives, but they're a really good source of nectar. You just tap the flower... get a nice, sweet drink. Of course, you've got to beat the birds and the bees, but they are good. This is the Illawarra Flame Tree, also known as a Kurrajong. Beautiful when it's in bloom, but the locals, they were more interested in the seeds. Although these seeds are hairy, once you cook them on the fire, they're nice to eat. Another great plant for roasting. This is the Sydney Rock Lily or, as the locals call it, Waragaldarra. Beautiful flowers, but also an edible tube. We can take these tubers and roast them on the fire. We're going to take one for later. So by necessity, Aboriginal people had worked out, through that intimate knowledge of the environment, what plants could be eaten, even if it was poisonous. Now, I'm sitting underneath the Black Bean or Moreton Bay Chestnut. This one here, this is the pod from it. Inside, you have these seeds. There's a protective coating around the seed. The seed itself, these are toxic in their natural state. But the ancestors worked out, grind these up, put them into a dilly bag not unlike this one. Then you put them into a creek and let the water wash the toxins out. Once that's done, you can make your johnnycake or damper, no problem. Now, here we are at the fire. Got our Sydney Rock Lilies on here, a few Kurrajong seeds. They'll be ready very shortly and these are great to eat, as I said. But Aboriginal people have been looking at these things for thousands of years, so we know what to eat. If you don't know what you're taking out of the bush, please don't eat it. So until next time, my name's Clarence. Jingawal.