indiginous foods

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Caite, Nov 3, 2005.

  1. Caite

    Caite Junior Member

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    does anyone know anything about native plant foods that can be grown in the northern end of new south wales? only really grown european and asian foods...seems odd to be keen on self-sufficiency and not know much about the native options...
     
  2. bazman

    bazman Junior Member

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    I have a book called "Grow your own Bushfoods" by Keith and Irene Smith

    ISBN 1 86436 459 9

    It covers most Australian native bush foods.
     
  3. Caite

    Caite Junior Member

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    and is it any good? have you grown anything?
     
  4. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    Bush Food (Aborignal Food and Herbal Medicine) by Jennifer Isaacs is another good one.

    If I find time tonight I will go through it for native plants grown in northern NSW.
     
  5. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    I have some questions to this topic.
    Bush food are , as far as I know not cultured plants. Why did nobody try to culture this plants?
    As this plants are still wils plants, how about the yields?
     
  6. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    G'day Hedwig, to the best of my knowledge the only 'Australian' bush food that has been grown commercially is the Macadamia. And it was the Americans who started it!!

    There are a number of papers that have been done over the last 10 years or so looking at other native foods. Personally I think there could be a small niche market for some of them. Well worth looking at.

    :)
     
  7. Penny

    Penny Junior Member

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    There is some experimentation with quondongs CSIRO ithink and wattles.
    The article I was reading sugested grafted quondongs for reliability of yeild but I'm going to try them from seed
     
  8. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    if you have a small suburban backyard and you like to grow as much of your own food as possible the idea of growing bushfood seems to be not that good.

    On the other hand in this climate it still seems to me very strange growing beetroot and parsnips.
     
  9. barely run

    barely run Junior Member

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    Landline had a session last year on native foods...mainly lemon myrtle, a bush pepper and some other that I can't remember. Dept Ag might have some info...there is a niche market through city restaurants and delicatessan's
    Cathy
     
  10. sabine

    sabine Junior Member

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    the good things about growing bushfoods is that, if you get the local ones, they are perfectly suited to the climate of your area, and the native animals are also very happy to eat familar foods! i'm quite a bit north of you Caite, near Bundaberg, but i thought i'd mention things that grow well for us here - lemon myrtle, some lilly pillys, macadamias of course, native tamarinds, northern davison plum... most of these aren't exactly local though :?

    peace,
    sabine
     
  11. verrall

    verrall Junior Member

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    Hi Caite,

    I thoroughly recommend the book called "Grow your own Bushfoods" by Keith and Irene Smith ISBN 1 86436 459 9 , that bazman recommended.
    Also, "from seeds to leaves" by Doug and Robin Stewart ISBN 1-86395-225-x (available from green harvest)

    I am currently growing Lemon Myrtle, Aniseed Myrtle, Midyim berries, quakers cherries, small leaf lilly pillys, small leaved plum myrtle, and probably others that have slipped my mind.

    I am in SE QLD, so not much different in the climate.

    There is a market for Macadamias naturely, but also for Lemon Myrtle (everything), wattle seeds, Davidson plum jam and wine, and many others.

    Take a trip to Tropical Fruit World https://www.tropicalfruitworld.com.au/ on the North NSW coast, and check out their gift shop (free to browse), or look at https://www.tropicalfruitworld.com.au/pr ... efault.asp. I wouldn't buy too much as it is very expensive, but it might give you some ideas. Perhaps a market for yourself? 8)
     
  12. baldcat

    baldcat Junior Member

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    Hey Penny, I could be wrong, but I think quondongs are quite difficult due to the fact that they rely on other trees to grow. From what I have been told, their roots connect to other trees and live off them, instead of fending from themselves.. This is why they aren't a very common tree, you only find them growing in little patches.. I may be WRONG though..
     
  13. forest

    forest Junior Member

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    lemon myrtle is grown commercially for food and toiletries and finger limes, which I believe are native to northern NSW, are grown for the restaurant trade.
     
  14. forest

    forest Junior Member

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    not grown commerically but a native of norther NSW is Davidson's Plum tree Davidsonia pruriens. Makes a brilliant jam.
     
  15. Penny

    Penny Junior Member

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    Dan, I work at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin Uni (well till the end of the year) and have gained so much knowlege from my students, some of whom are older and wise people and they dont seem to think I will have any trouble. One of my friends from here is an elder and she says that there were a lot of quondongs around my area. Anyway she knows where they grow near my place so she is comming up to tell me what medicine and food plants I have in my area and what I need to replace and where I can collect seed.
    Neat hey!!
    Thanks for the info tho I will ask my friend about it.
     
  16. permaculture.biz

    permaculture.biz Junior Member

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    G'day,

    Some years ago a mate of mine in South Australia, Peter Ravesteyn, conducted a breeding trial to start selecting advantageous yield and harvesting traits of Acacia retinodes (wirilda). Peter found kept very good records of the trial (which I have on a ZIP disc somewhere), and I continued the work at a property I developed in central Victoria: Woodbrook Farm @ Harcourt. We planted about 400 A. retinodes at the property. These trees were planted with seed selected by Pete that were high yielding, produced pods twice per year and held all of the pods in clusters as opposed to being dispersed along the branches.

    At the recent Bendigo PDC we had a did a quick inspection of the site (I haven't looked at it for years) and found that the trees still displayed enormous variation, a fact that leads us to acknowledge that, at least with this species, we have a long way to go before a cultivar could be selected and that other means of cultivar reproduction (cuttings for example) would be the best way of developing the potential of this very useful and versatile species further.

    A.retinodes is to me a temperate analogue of tagasaste, however is able to grow on a wider variety of sites. Very fast growing it produces in 2-3 years about 2-5kg of seed/tree/year. As such I suggested to my students that this kind of planting for its own sake is economically viable, and can be sold for between $10-40/kg for human consumption or revegetation projects. Where pruned as well this species can ultimately produce both high value seed together with a small diameter log for craftwood.

    To my knowledge the Woodbook Farm owners have not exploited this planting as I had intended, nor as a result kept any records, anecdotal or otherwise, of the seed bearing characteristics. Though it is clear that it would be a nice little earner for a zero input species.

    Ciao,

    Daz
     
  17. earthbound

    earthbound Junior Member

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    Interesting Daz...

    I did a bit of seed picking a few years years back and it can be quite lucrative... Especially useful if you have marginal or salt effected land and your looking for a way to make it pay for itself.

    Many different types of salt bush can be a good earner as theres a ready market for salt bush seeds in reveg work. I picked an atriplex species a couple of hundred kms north of perth on a property, and made over $800 for 8 hours of fairly easy work. I guess I had it easy because my dad spent his whole life working for the ag department in saltland agonomy, so he already knew where some good spots where and when things would be ripe. But seed suppliers are always keen to get reliable pickers/suppliers and it's great work out in the bush travelling around..

    There was one species of banksia I picked down in the southwest and the seeds were worth $1 each....... :shock:
     
  18. permaculture.biz

    permaculture.biz Junior Member

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    Seed Waste

    G'day Joel,

    Too right: it can be lucrative, and for a lot of species it is essential that we start to develop seed orchards. I was reading the other day when I was home (in the Weekly Times supplement) of a former client who is growing monoculture plantations of Eucalyptus tricarpa (red ironbark), E. polybractea (blue mallee) Acacia pendula (weeping myall) that he was harvesting Austrodanthonia spp. seed from between the tree rows, getting them cleaned and getting good dough for them too. Native grass seed is worth a shit load.

    Problem is you need to be licenced to harvest seed from native plants on public land and there is also the issue of the effect on the local ecology of seed removal. This, and the prices determined by the ever increasing demand points to the serious potential to cash in. As I regularly say to my students: "land degradation is a growing industry" and the demand for the seed etc. is always on the increase.

    On this point however is a bug bear of mine. The flagrant waste of seed used in direct seeding projects. Often using public money this activity in many areas, uses antiquated technology that really doesn't cut the mustard. I've been saying to people in Greening Australia for years that they need to start talking to people in the horticultural/ag engineering industries about the precision air seeding equipment available. They just love wasting seed, scalping soil, and relying on gravity to drop seed onto the ground. Some machines have tynes but a lot spray, scalp, drop and press wheel.

    At the Mt Wycheproof Cup the other week I was talking to a broadacre spraying contractor mate of mine (who as it was pissing down I suggested he should be a busy man spraying fungicides this season!). We got talking about a new direct seeding machine GA were using in the southern mallee, and said it was a piece of crap and couldn't believe that they weren't using bits from the precision air seeders his clients use for sowing crops. I knowingly nodded and shook my head like I have a thousand times before.

    I developed a machine earlier this year that took another tack in response to a client who unwittingly had a nursery grow 100 000 herb seedlings for him in little 198 cell trays. He wanted to sow them into pasture somehow (following the BioDynamic/Juliet de Bairacli Levy thesis). I took a very deep breath when I went to the nursery and saw a sea of seedlings filling a giant hothouse. Anyway after I regained composure I drove home and came up with the solution: plant the suckers mechanically!!

    I had already built a couple of mechanical transplanters before for forestry work, but this time the challenge was to plant very small herb seedlings into existing pasture without making a mess. But my finger planters would not do. Then I remembered seeing some cup-type skid planters down at Werribee planting lettuce seedlings and thought they would be ideal, as opposed to the press-wheel type.

    So I rang around and found a bloke who had 3 second hand units that had been discarded by a market gardener at Cranbourne. $3000 later and they are in the trailer and were away. My solution was to mount these skid planters on the back of the keyline plow (with coulter fitted). I went down to a mob that sells them brand new took a heap of photos and got to work. He wanted a heap for the tray holders, So after a day in the shed welding, making brackets, seats (from the tip - plastic school chairs), and the tray carosel, I took the machine down to the farm and hook it up.

    [​IMG]

    After a bit of tinkering I was blown away. The machine subsoiled and planted up to 5000 seedlings an hour with zero disturbance! After that success I then added an automatic waterer to the planter that was an optional accessory. 200 litre plastic drum mounted to front of tractor and gravity. Been adding some fish emulsion and activated Tricoderma spp. to the water for additional benefit.

    [​IMG]

    When I get back I will be putting the other two planters on (with a couple more keyline shanks), find a couple more people and then we'll be planting at least 15 000 per hour.

    I sent photos of this machine to Greening Australia etc. and not a word, which frankly comes as no surprise.

    https://www.permaculture.biz/keylineskidplanter.htm

    Ciao,

    Daz
     
  19. earthbound

    earthbound Junior Member

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    Brilliant work Darren.....

    With the seed picking I was surprised how easy it was to get a license, and how little policeing there was involved... Most of my picking was on severely degraded salt affected land, with a high percentage of planted and introduced species for the areas.

    But really it was just a case of pay your $150 bucks for the license and then go for your life.... They asked you to fill in a monthly form indicating which species and in which areas you had been picking, but for memory I didn't fill anything out... It was all going back to CALM anyway, so it would have just been lost along the way... This was almost 15 years ago now and I hope they might have tightened up on things a little since then, but I wouldn't imagine so.

    Though yeah, I'm not surprised that greening Australia wasn't interested, they are too busy spending money on advertising and image to worry about the real issues. Just so long as it seems like your doing the right thing.....

    That reminds me of one that shocked me last night on tellie.. I saw an add from the water board, telling how they are thining out trees in the catchment areas around our dams, because the trees are using up valuable water, stopping it getting to our dams.... "Just another way the water board is helping plan for the future" or so they reakon I can't wait to get away from scheme water and sewerage.... :?
     

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