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for food and quiet contemplation
Bush foods
For thousands of years Australian Aboriginal people have hunted
and gathered the foods they need from the bush. The foods they obtain
depends on where they are, what season it is and what knowledge
they have about what is edible and how to prepare it.
Different plants have different edible parts. These include: fruits,
seeds, tubers and roots, flowers, nectar and pollen, leaves and
sap.
In the Hunter River estuary, local aboriginal peoples supplemented
their mainly seafood diet with shoots and tubers from wetland areas
as well as fruits, nuts, nectar and seeds from the rainforests of
this floodplain.
Note: Not all plants are edible
Warning: Great care should be taken when trying an unknown
plant. All plants are potentially poisonous, depending on
the species, season, plant part and its preparation. Any tasting
should be done with great care and under the guidance of someone
with traditional knowledge of plants. |
City Farm bush food garden Bush foods
found in this ¾ hectare garden include Cumbungi which has
tender, edible shoots and flowers; Native Ginger which has edible
roots and fruits; Wild Quince, Lilly Pilly and Sandpaper Fig which
have edible fruits; Warrigal Greens which has edible leaves; Mat
Rush which has edible seeds; Lemon Myrtle and Aniseed Tree which
have leaves that can be dried, pulverized and used as flavourings.
As well as providing food for people and wildlife, the bush food
garden increases the biodiversity of City Farm and links areas of
natural vegetation on and outside the farm.
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Native Ginger
lines this raised bed in the bush
food garden. |
Fruit of Brush Cherry
(Syzygium australe) |
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