Growing for success | Taste some wild native bush tucker

‘Backhousia citriodora’ lemon myrtle is probably the most common of the native herbs. The leaves can be used in cooking to add a zesty, slightly peppery lemon flavour to meat dishes, cakes, biscuits, salad dressings, sauces and ice creams. It also makes a very refreshing tea. The essential oil distilled from the leaves has a beautiful lemon fragrance and is known to have antibacterial and antifungal properties. Growing from three to eight metres high, it can be clipped as a hedge or medium-sized shrub, where its aroma will gently drift through the surrounding garden.

Pepperberry or ‘Tasmannia lanceolata’ grows to about three metres high in the home garden and can be kept even smaller with pruning, but in its natural surroundings, it can reach eight to 10 metres in height. Both leaves and berries may be used fresh or dried to add a spicy, peppery flavour to culinary dishes, but if you want to grow the berries, you will need both male and female plants.

‘Prostanthera rotundifolia’, native oregano, is a strong aromatic herb commonly known as the round-leafed mint bush. It is an extremely popular small-to-medium native shrub grown mostly for its ornamental appearance. Traditionally, though, it was used as a medicinal herb for treating headaches and colds; however, recently, it has become very much in demand as a superior native substitute for common oregano with a strong, earthier flavour.

Finger limes, ‘Citrus australasica’, is another bush tucker fruit that is now very trendy and well-known with its little pearls of flavour that burst in your mouth. Typically, a subtropical rainforest plant will still grow very well in our region. This spiky native citrus plant grows small, elongated fruit that are full of small caviar-like beads. Varieties like pink ice, red champagne, red centre, crystal and rainforest pearl are all very popular and reasonably readily available. The fruit does not ripen well off the tree, so leave them until they feel plump and full, when they will then detach easily from the plant.

‘Kunzea pomifera’, Muntries or emu apples, are small one-centimetre-sized crunchy berries that have the flavour of a spicy, sweet apple. They can be eaten fresh from the plant or dried for storage, and can be used in sweet and savoury dishes when ripe. Muntries are green with a tinge of purplish red and have about four times the amount of antioxidants than blueberries do. The plant is extremely hardy and grows as a low ground cover to less than half-a-metre-high in a sunny position. It has small white flowers that appear in spring and can look quite at home among other plants in the garden.

‘Austromyrtus dulcis’, Midyim berries, are lovely small ornamental shrubs, with small white starry flowers in summer, that set small white, purple-speckled berries in profusion throughout late summer and early autumn. They are most delicious with a similar taste and appearance to a tangy, sweet blueberry. This dense, bushy plant can grow to about two metres high and has a graceful, flowing habit. The new leaves are burgundy/bronze in colour and change to a rich green as they mature.

Other varieties that we have come through the garden centre include Davidson’s plum, ‘Davidsonia jerseyana’, Fraser Island apple, ‘Acronychia imperforata’, Macadamia nut in both dwarf and tall forms, ‘Macadamia integrifolia’, Atherton raspberry ‘Rubus probus’, apple berry that tastes like stewed apples, ‘Billardiera scsandens’, Old man’s salt bush with edible seeds and leaves, ‘Atriplex nummularia’, Karkalla or native pig face, ‘Carpobrotus rossii’, and Warrigal greens, ‘Tetragonia tetragonioides’, to name just a few.

With the range changing all the time, next time you are in the garden centre, have a look and maybe even a taste, but please don’t go munching on things unless you know what it is all about.

Anyway, I am feeling a tad hungry after writing this, so I might head to the nursery now for a snack.