All about our native foods

Dec 12 2007

Find it here.

Bush Tucker Stands Test of Time as Fast Food Exits the Menu

Geoff Cooper, a Family and Youth Services worker in the Osborne area of Adelaide, wonders if he’d had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes “back in the old days.”
In fact, Geoff is pretty sure that neither he, or any other Indigenous Australian before the coming of white people and their dietary habits, would have experienced diabetes.
The original people had a diet that they’d worked out over thousands of years,” Geoff believes.

Read more.

Locals lose out to sexy aliens

Dec 12 2007
Globalisation has led to an increase in invasions by new species around
the world and this is costing agriculture and the environment dearly.
Invasive animals often thrive at the expense of their close indigenous
relatives and a paper published today in Science within the Science
Express web site provides some insights into why.
Read more here.

Workshop – food ingredients and bioactives

Dec 12 2007
How food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, growers and processors can better use fruit and vegetables to enhance the texture and nutritional value of a wide range of foods, will be the discussed at a workshop in Werribee, Victoria, tomorrow.
The workshop is designed to provide the main players in the food chain with a comprehensive overview of what recent research in this area has achieved and what advances some of Australia’s leaders in the field regard as being achievable in the short to long-term.
Read more here.

From EcoeNews

Dec 11 2007

Authentic Australian food, land stewardship and our food for the future
Have you ever considered the consequences of your choice in the foods you eat? Beef production is a sequence of land clearing, water harvesting, fencing, weed and erosion control, chemical drenches, waterway pollution and oil dependent animal husbandry and meat production.

Read more

Finally... 

Dec 9 2007

First of the new searchable databases is (back) up - fruiting times

Find it here.

New site up

Dec 9 2007

It's not often I find a new Australian site on bushfoods but here's a nice one - early days for it but lots of yum stuff.

Australian Bushfoods & Products

Finding the right bush tucker

Natascha Mirosch

The Courier Mail

December 03, 2007 11:00pm

MORE than 200 years ago the first ships arrived from England stocked with plants and seeds from the UK to propagate and provide food for the new settlers.

Not only did the representatives of the king declare "terra nullius" on his behalf, but they claimed the land to be empty of food too.

It was even said by some settlers that the Aborigines "didn't eat anything at all". Over the past decade or so, we've started to respect the native owners of the land and their understanding of bush tucker and to acknowledge that if we don't take an interest that expertise is in danger of being lost.

Read more...

Walking the chain: information is power

Dec 4 2007

Yes indeed it is...a new project from Desert Knowledge...

New understanding of the production, processing, marketing and retailing cycle of bush tomatoes will give Aboriginal people increased opportunities in this evolving industry.

Dec 4 2007

(from the Age)

It's not precisely about bushfoods (though they feature) but a fascinating read nonetheless - can't conquer your weeds? Eat 'em!)

One person's weeds are another's gourmet lunch. 

There's plenty of bush tucker to be found in your neighbourhood if you know where to look, as Katherine Kizilos discovers. On a sunny spring day Adam Grubb, self-styled weed enthusiast, is picking his way over stepping stones in the northern reaches of the Merri Creek. Clumps of watercress crowd the water's edge, shaded by hawthorn and willows.

Getting Together

Dec 4 2007

I never fail to be amazed at the depth and breadth and quality of material the New Crops people out at Gatton produced when they were in existence.

Here's an old report - but a good one.

Desert Knowledge Symposium 2008

Dec 4 2007

(I know it's a long ways off - I'll be putting up notice again closer to the date!)

We are very pleased to announce that the 2008 Desert Knowledge Symposium and Business Showcase has been set for 4 to 7 November 2008, at the Alice Springs Convention Centre.

Some Great Plant descriptions

Nov 26 07

From Tukka restaurant

Find them here.

Promoting Australian Native Foods for Community Change

by Dr Ken Dyer

Nov 26 07

This is an old paper but a very good (and long read)

Read more.

Sources of Antioxidant Activity in Australian Native Fruits

Nov 26 07

Abstract of this report looks good - full version has to be purchased.

Read more.

Native Foods R&D Priorities and Strategies 2007 to 2012

Nov 26 07

Foreword

The Native Foods sub-program has developed as a cohesive set of projects within the New Plants Program. With the formation of Australian Native Food Industry Limited as a peak body for the industry it is timely to review the R&D plan that RIRDC has followed over the past five years. RIRDC has provided $1.65 million to 33 projects since it began in 1998, with contributions from research organisations and the industry bringing the total investment to $3.97 million. A wide range of topics have been supported, including support for the development of the industry peak body, with the majority of funding going to addressing production constraints and exploring novel uses to grow the markets for Australian native foods.

Read more

Sydney Rainforest Nursery

Nov 26 07

Thank you for including us in your list of nurseries that sell bush food 
plants.

Would you be so kind as to add our web site to your information?
www.sydneyrainforest.com.au

Our website is new, and not finished. (are they ever?)
Regards,
Deidrie Jinks
The Sydney Rainforest

New peak body to set agenda for native foods

Nov 26 07

By Anna Vidot, ABC 

Thursday, 15/11/2007

The peak body for Australia's native food industry will hold its first annual general meeting today in Lismore in New South Wales.

Australian Native Food Industry Limited was formed last December, after previous attempts to establish a national body were unsuccessful.

Read more

Back up again - 

Oct 20 2007

While I reconstruct the Bushfoods, site, I will revert back to this old content - just so there's something on this site other than an apology notice! Some of the links may no longer work. The new site WILL be up and running in December!

The Antioxidants strike again...

Thursday, 20 September 2007

From  ABC Alice Springs

Bombing cancer with bush tomatoes

September 12, 2007.

By Nicole Lee and Dave Richards

Local artist, Suzy Lyon has created what judges have described as an “anti oxidant bomb” for the second heat of the Bush Foods Cooking Competition at the Alice Springs Desert Festival.

The dish, which combines native bush tomato, pomegranate and kangaroo is titled “Pomegranate and Bush Tomato Kangaroo Casserole” and is claimed to be packed full of cancer killing anti oxidants.

Suzy Lyon started eating bush tomatoes more for medicinal rather than culinary purposes. During her battle against cancer, bush tomatoes became a regular feature on Suzy’s menu and part of her healthy eating regime to fight the disease.

READ MORE

Packaging 101 

Thursday, 20 September 2007

What is it?

it's the stuff that goes around the stuff that we actually buy.

Or - (from the design strategies site: 

Product packaging is the art and science of creating boxes, covers, tubes, bags and other containers that are sturdy enough to protect the product inside, and that are effective promotional pieces in themselves. To a very large degree, the quality of design work on the package affects how well your products sell. 

When shopping, you reach for products whose packaging is attractive and looks professional, and you instinctively shy away from unattractively packaged products. The design of the container along with the images, logos, marketing text, ingredients and fine print, all go into creating something people will feel confident to buy. Therefore it is essential that packaging be of the highest quality so that it acts as your in-store salesperson.

In this series of articles, we'll look at the many different aspects of packaging - from design (see article) to technology (see Bar Codes), legislation, psychology, trends, costs and, hopefully, how to make your packaging as effective (and earth friendly) as possible.

READ MORE

Bushfoods for colder climates

Tuesday, 18 September 2007

Story By Claire Bradley. Pictures by Warren Jones

Flip through a bushfoods classic like Issac's Bush Food or Cherikoff's The Bushfood Handbook and you may be left with the impression that pickings are slim in the southern half of the nation. With increasingly limited rainfall and frosts to contend with, attempting to grow native food plants in southern Australia may seem like an unlikely proposition. Not so! A number of South Australian growers are successfully cultivating a range of plants traditionally associated with rainforest regions and/or high water requirements.

One such grower is Warren Jones, of Tumbeela Native Foods in Verdun, South Australia. Situated in the western Mount Lofty Ranges, this area receives approximately 800mm of rainfall a year, higher than the Adelaide Plains, but in a different, and more variable, pattern than the eastern states. Further, this region is subject to some blinding, dry heat in summer (in excess of 40oC) coupled with frosts in winter. At Tumbeela, however, Warren has successfully established a number of rainforest bushfood crops including lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora), and riberries (Szygium leuhmanni). Growing amongst these is a significant number of Tasmannia lanceolata (mountain pepper).

READ MORE

A tour round Townsville

Thursday, 20 September 2007

Photos and Story by Braydon Moloney 

Townsville is situated in the coastal dry tropics of northern Queensland. It is a popular tourist stop-off, with most visitors using it as a base for exploring Magnetic Island, the Great Barrier Reef or the historic inland area around Charters Towers. It is also a popular place for holidaying birdwatchers - there are a plethora of RAMSAR listed wetlands around the city, which attract migrant waterbirds from both the north and south, and its proximity to the Wet Tropics sees the occasional appearance of exotic rainforest vagrants as they hop between patches of monsoon vine thickets. But if you look past the colourful birds and begin to examine what they're sitting on, what they're eating, and what they're 'depositing', a new story beings to unfold. Welcome to the coastal dry tropics and its incredible diversity of bush food.

READ MORE

Bushfood Blog

Feb 20 2007

There's a newish bushfood blog that's great fun to visit - 

http://blog.aussiebushfood.com/

Fairly regularly updated and some good 'down to earth' articles.

Tasty sites:

• Aniseed Myrtle

• Aussie Bee

• Australian Bushfoods & Products

• Australian Finger Lime Growers Association

• Bushfood forum

• Australian Desert Limes

• Australian Rainforest Products

• Barbushco

• Basically Wild

• Benjamin Christie

• Brushtail Bushfoods

• Cedar Creek Bushfoods

• Vic Cherikoff

• The Dilly Bag

• Galeru

• Green Farmhouse

• Kurrajong

• Lemon Myrtle Refreshed

• Lyle's Bushfoods

• Murri Magic

• Outback Pride

• Outback Spirit

• Qld Bushfoods Ass,

• Rainforest Liqueurs

• Tukka Restaurant

• Wild Finger Lime

• Witjuti Grub Bushfood Nursery

Australian Bushfoods magazine