Australian Bush Life

Bush Tucker Warrigal Greens - Tetragonia tetragonoides.

Warrigal Greens – Tetragonia tetragonoides are probably one of the easiest of bush tucker plants to grow which are also really easy to use and eat. Warrigal Greens can be grown easily from seed but can also be grown by division. To divide ensure you take a piece from the parent plant which includes some roots then plant into a pot and keep well watered for about a month before planting out into your bush tucker garden.

Bush Tucker. Warrigal Greens - Tetragonia tetragonoides also a ground cover plant.

Warrigal Greens can be substituted wherever you would use spinach or silverbeet. We have heard that it is not great to eat raw but we sometimes use a little bit to boost up a salad. Otherwise we add to stir fries, quiches, pastas or make pesto etc.

Warrigal Greens – Tetragonia tetragonoides are also a native plant and provide great habitat as ground cover for small wildlife to hide.

Glossodia major - Wax-lip Orchid after bushfire

Here are 2 orchids that we saw in the spring after the bushfire. Wax-lip Orchid - Glossodia major is one of the dominant orchids on our block. We saw the Wax-lip Orchid - Glossodia major before the bushfire but it was in a far greater abundance

Calochilus robertsonii - Purplish Beard-orchid after bushfire

 after the bushfire. On the other hand we had never see the Purplish Beard-orchid – Calochilus robertsonii on our block before the bushfire and only saw 1 specimen in spring this year, what an exciting new treat.

Hopefully next year we will have a greater diversity of orchids as in general bushfire stimulates their regeneration and it may take a few seasons after the bushfire event until you get to see the full diversity of orchids that have been stimulated by a bushfire.

Other wildflowers after bushfire…..

Foothill Yam-daisy flowers. Microseris lanceolata. Bushtucker - Murnong.

We harvested and ate our first round of Foothill Yam-daisy – Microseris lanceolata in early February. Foothill Yam-daisy, known as Murnong in local aboriginal (Wurundjeri) language. This species once covered most of Victoria & was a staple food supply of aboriginals over the state. It would have been beautiful to see the land covered in these beautiful plants with pretty yellow flowers over many months.

Foothill Yam-daisy root and plant. Microseris lanceolata. Bushtucker - Murnong.

Foothill Yam-daisy – Microseris lanceolata has dissapeared from large areas of Victoria mostly through grazing which was introduced when white settlement occurred through the 1800′s. Cattle and sheep either ate the plants or trampled the ground so that the ground hardened and became unsuitable for the tuberous roots of Foothill Yam-daisies.

We used a small shovel and dug out the whole plant, the underground tuberous root is the eating part. Mostly the Murnong had finished flowering so we just spread the seeds in the garden bed area for the next seasons bushtucker plants for us to eat. We simply washed the tuberous roots and decided to put them on the BBQ as that was what we were doing for dinner. They had a nice texture and were quite tasty as they were cooked alongside some meat and onions.

Click to view post on roasting Murnong (Wurundjeri)……….

Bush tucker Warrigal Greens - Tetragonia tetragonoides with Brown Tree Frog - Litoria ewingii

We live in an area that has been lived in by indigenous australians (aboriginal people) for thousands of years. We are trying to learn more about the local indigenous plants that were used by aborignal people in this area for food and other materials like weapons, shelter, baskets etc.

In addition to the local indigenous plants we are interested in trying to grow other bush tucker plants from around australia all of which may be of interest for selling at local markets and potential restaurants dealing in aboriginal, bush tucker foods. We are very much in the learning and experimental stage which is quite exciting for us.

We are on a journey of discovery first we are on a huge learning curve of being able to identify all of the different indigenous plants on our block  and then researching to find out if these indigenous plants had a use by aboriginal people. We are also having fun with trying to time the use of the indigenous plants i.e. if they are for eating (bushtucker) it might only be at certain times of year or for weaving you might need to harvest the leaves a few days beforehand to ensure that they weave most easily without breaking.

Also indigenous plants are great habitat for local wildlife and provides them with all the requirements they need and are adapted to using for shelter and food requirements. More information on local wildlife on our bush…….