Bush tucker: Bush tucker is Australian terminology for the huge variety of herbs, spices, mushrooms, fruits, flowers, vegetables, animals, birds, reptiles and insects that are native to the country. Some grow wild in the backyards of city homes, others hide their goodness in remote parts of the desert and are difficult to find.
Fruits There are hundreds of different kinds of tasty fruits and berries in the bush. They include: quandong, a wild peach which is has a delicate acid flavor which is eaten stewed or in ice cream; the native cherry of New South Wales, different to the European cherry in that it has a stone on the outside, which is sweet and slightly astringent to the palate.
Seeds and Nuts Grass seeds, pigweed, wattles and mangrove pods are widely eaten. Australia also has a good variety of nuts. The macadamia nut is the only indigenous plant cropped commercially. The nuts can be eaten raw or roasted. They are commonly used in a range of confectioneries and cakes and various products are now being manufactured from the nut. For example, macadamia nut butter and cold-pressed macadamia oil. The bunya nut can also be found in some supermarkets. Edible varieties of beans and peas include Moreton Bay chestnuts and matchbox bean.
Tuber Tubers provided the staple diet of Aborigines and various yams, corms, and roots were the major forms of sustenance. Roots and tubers have similar food value to potatoes and carrots. Aborigines knew the smell of chocolate for thousands of years before they encountered the taste. The aroma is carried by the mauve lilies found in South Australia. Other lilies include common fringed and twining fringed lily. Many orchids and their tubers are also eaten.
Greens Leaves of plants were only a minor source for Aborigines. Edible varieties included bruised leaves of fishweed and different saltbushes that can be boiled like spinach. Leaves of cresses can be cooked as cabbage, the buds and flowers steamed as broccoli and the seeds ground as mustard.