Hello. My name's Errol Clarke.
And today I'm going to be talking about Bush Tucker plants and their uses and what we
used to use them for. Before we start, I'd like to acknowledge the land of filming on
today is on Kaurna land and I would like to pay respects to the elders past, present and
emerging. First, what were be talking about today?
The Enchylaena Tomentosa or commonly known as the ruby saltbush. The ruby saltbush
has small red berries, as you can see by the picture.
They're a nice, sweet berry, the redder and purpler they are the better.
The green ones seem to be a bit more tarter.
They can be eaten raw and also be soaked in hot water and made into a sweet tea.
The leaves are also edible,
they can be slightly blanched or used in a fresh salad and used with some meat or fish.
Early colonists used to go and boil them and eat them
as a source of nutrients and antioxidants. The Enchylaena Tomentosa can be
grown at home by anybody.
You can purchase these plants from the State Flora,
which is up in Belair.
What I'll do is I'll provide the links with this video and you can go along and purchase
those at a reasonable price, which can then be grown at home for you to use whenever you
wish. They grow to about half a metre high and half a metre wide
so they're not that invasive.
If you grab a couple of those and put them in one spot, you can have a very good feed all
year 'round. They're fairly easy growing.
They'll grow on any soils and are very drought tolerant after the first six months of you
watering them. So by all means, go and grab some of those ruby saltbush from the State Flora.
The next one we'll be talking about
is the Kunzea Purmifera. As you can see from the pictures there
it has a nice little berry on it, tastes similar to a little apple.
And it is known to have four times more antioxidants than the old blueberries when
blueberries are very high the antioxidants.
This food is best eaten fresh. Most Aboriginal people would go and collect this
fresh daily and eat it.
It can be stored after being pounded into flat cakes and then dried in the sun so it
could be eaten at another stage.
Basically, they can be also be grown at home.
Also, these ones can be purchased from State
Flora in Belair as a little plant like that
they are what's called a ground cover.
So they'll go along the ground probably about 20 centimetres high and can spread to
around about one metre radius depending on your soil conditions and water.
You can also get the berries and freeze them.
So if you have a good crop, you can grab the berries, freeze them, then they can also be
used in fruit salads, in stews and a multitude of other things.
Also, too, you can use to make them into sauces, into chutneys and also into jams.
So there's a multitude of things you could use the berries for.
Again, these ones can be grown at home and can be grown in any soil.
Preferably they would like sandy soil.
So anywhere near the beach. They can grow on clay soil
it'll just take a little slower to grow to full maturity
than your normal plant. These ones were generally found on the
Adelaide Plains but can also be found around in other parts of Australia.
But it was a main staple for the Aboriginal and Kaurna people on the Adelaide
plains. And their high nutrient and antioxidant value was a part of their balanced
diet. The next plant we'll be talking about is the Acacia Pycnantha.
Now there's over 800 species of acacia in Australia.
So this one here is found in the western and the south, eastern and southern states of
Australia. You don't tend to find this one any further north than Alice Springs and
Sydney. The acacia was basically used for its seed and its sap.
So essentially the seed would come through after this beautiful flowers and then they
would be gathered by the community.
And then the seed was separated from the seed pod.
It was also parched in a fire just to make the grounding easier.
And then pounded into, grounded into
essentially a flour, which was then basically made into a a damper, which was their source
of carbohydrates and also fibre. That then damper would then just be placed in some
pot holes and some ash.
So it didn't burn off steam, and then that would be cooked for about ten to
fifteen minutes and the coals would then be ready to eat with some kangaroos and emu
and whatever else they might have caught, some fish.
You can also use the wattle seed as a confectionery and dairy and sweets. Also coffee
like beverages these days, it's become quite commercial.
So you can find a wattle seed just about anywhere.
It either comes in the whole seed form or grounded
wattle seed form and is readily available of most specialty shops.
Links to those where you can get that would also be provided on the website and links to
that so if you feel like you need to purchase some, or want to purchase some to make some
stuff at home you can, feel free to do so in your own time.
The next plant we'll be talking about is the saltbush.
Yeah, this one's called the Rhagodia Parabolica
commonly known as the fragrant saltbush.
Now, this one was generally found in the South Australian coast, wouldn't be into the
foothills, so to speak.
So as being the saltbush it needed the salt environment for it to grow the best
and also sandy soils. You won't get this one growing in heavy clay soils that much
even though it will, it probably won't grow as good.
So the saltbush is an excellent source of protein,
calcium, selenium and also some nitrogen. It also contains sodium, which was
important to the diet of Kaurna people.
And also, another rich source of antioxidants are essentially the leaves we used on this
one, the leafy vegetables.
So you'd probably have that with a bit of kangaroo or something.
And that would be your salt chaser, or for instance,
so you had your salt fix with your meat, otherwise
that might taste a little bit bland when you have kangaroo without some salt.
So that was a couple of the uses that they could be used for and you can
also use it as a dried herb, so dry the leaves, and crunch them up.
You can use them in damper, you can use them in stews, casseroles, soups and that sort of
stuff. So there was a few uses for those. And those berries as well,
they can be eaten
but they're very bitter.
They weren't eaten that much
and sometimes maybe in times of need or drought, they might have been eaten a little bit
more, but they're very rarely eaten.
That there finishes my talk for today on the bush tucker plants and their
availability. Now most and all of these are available from the State Flora
nursery and the links will be provided following this video.
And we can also have planting instructions.
I've made also made some fact sheets here for all these plants, which will be also
provided after this video.
So feel free to download the fact sheet and plant that you would like or if you'd like to
grow at home and then you can go and purchase those plants in your time, and get your own
little bush tucker garden growing at home.
So it becomes a sustainable way of living these days as well
and it's also drought tolerant
so you're not using as much water as some of the plants you would usually at home.
So thank you for your time today.
Just before I go, though, I would like to let you know though that there are some dangers
associated with eating native plants.
And I urge you to only pick those if you are a trained professional and
know exactly what you're doing or you have a trained professional with you.
And you can see some of these can be misidentified and that could cause you some very
serious illness or allergic reaction to some.
So I urge you to do some research and not to just go out there and walk around and pick
whatever plant you think that might look like.
And so without that proper training and knowledge, please be careful and take bush tucker
very seriously. And in some cases, it's you know, it takes some preparation before you
can even eat it, for instance.
So, be careful while you're out there
and thank you for your time today.
And I hope you enjoyed my video on the bush tucker.
Thank you.