Bunya Nuts - fabulous bush tucker!

Hi Folks!

An extra big welcome to the wonderful women I met at Seven Sisters Festival!

Like my Bunya Nut dish above? I boiled the Bunya nuts in salt water for 30 minutes then shelled them. I sauted them with butter, salt, pepper and dried oregano - and OMGODDESS were they amazing.

These ones were found near the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. They are like giant pine nuts and were a traditional food of Aboriginal people in QLD. I recommend you find your local ones and watch them like a hawk every february :)

Its acorn season now - English oaks are dropping acorns across Melbourne and Victoria, they are generally pretty good eating - see previous posts for cooking instructions.

Chestnuts will be falling soon - keep an eye out! Pine Mushrooms should be starting now too! So much wild food!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While you're here, please - fill out my survey, it will take about 5 minutes. It will tell me what you want to learn, how and where you'll do it, and for what cost. Thanks in advance!

Survey is here! THANKS!!!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K2QGCS8

The politics of weeds as a food - and a recipe!

The politics of weeds as a food

Its spring and all the weeds are coming up. Awesome! Time to make some salad!!! I have some theories on herbs and edible weeds. The first is that many of these plants have been part of the human landscape for thousands, even millions of years. It’s no accident that Dandelion, one of the most nutritious plants in the world is found in temperate climates all over the globe. 

It's there because we have been eating it forever, we took it there. Where we call it a weed, it has fallen victim to poison companies and people who have been convinced by Monsanto, Bayer and the like that lawns should be a monoculture, that they should have no food value whatsoever and that we need to poison the hell out of anything other than grass. This is important – if we have food volounteering in our lawns we are less likely to buy vegetable and grain seed and food produced by these same companies.  God forbid we have any say over what we eat, and any food democracy at all.

When we eat a dandelion leaf, we aren’t just getting Vitamin A, B, C, D, fibre, protein, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, copper, cobalt, zinc, boron, molybdenum, we are telling multinational corporations to shove their poison and GMO seed where the sun don’t shine.  We are also saying a big up yours to companies like McDonalds who would squash our food independence in the name of money making and deliberate homogenization.

I’m a permaculture designer – one of our principles of design is this:

The problem is the solution.

Where someone else sees a problem and wants to kill it, have a think about how that plant could be utilized. Find out what ecological niche and function it fills and exploit it. Use it for food, or firewood, or basketry, or medicine, or animal forage, or to advance succession.  Once we have figured out how to use it, it is no longer a weed, but an ally. But now, on to the food…

Getting started with eating herbs and weeds can be challenging as many of us haven’t worked with their flavours before. Making a green dressing for your salad, boiled potatoes or meat is a great way to get extra nutrition as well as awesome flavour. I’ve put the ingredients below in ratios to help you make a delicious mix. The trick is to use as many different herbs and weeds as possible, chopped very finely, so that there is no one overpowering flavour. I’ve put down the plants I have tasted and like. There are lots more out there – get researching and foraging! Get your plant ID correct so you don’t get nasty surprises like eating broad leaf plantain instead of narrow leaf plantain – or too much dock - it aint fun, trust me.

And remember – every delicious bite is a political act of independence!

Green Salad Dressing

You can chop any of the ingredients finely and hand mix or use a blender to get a pesto-like consistency with garlic and olive oil.

Add lemon or lime juice to balance the flavour. You can also use good vinegar and a teaspoon of mustard. Then add salt and pepper to taste. Try adding some nuts or capers for extra body.

Be creative and remember to taste as you go and before you season. 

Choose some of these ingredients:

Handful

parsley, broad bean tips, kale, oregano or marjoram, young silverbeet, young rainbow chard, beetroot leaves, basil, coriander, watercress, sprouts, mint, clover leaves, chickweed, mallow, thin leafed plantain (small leaves)

Half handful

sage, thyme, raw sorrel, spring onions, chives or garlic chives, rosemary, chervil, tarragon, borage, lemon balm, nasturtium leaves, mustard leaves, dill, fennel, young dandelion leaves (before flowering), violet leaves, catsear, small fat hen leaves,  purslane, onion weed (allium triquetrum)

Handful blanched

warrigal greens, spinach, silverbeet leaves, nettle leaves and stems, sorrel, amaranth, large fat hen leaves, blanched canna lily (new shoots peeled to green centre)

Pull apart

edible flowers for garnish, Dandelion, Borage, Nasturtium, Calendula, Bergamot, Clover, Rocket, Allium, Pineapple sage, any Brassica flowers

Other weeds I've eaten:

Prickly pear - use caution when harvesting... TRUST ME!!!

How to process acorns

Acorns are fantastic! They are full of nutrients, are a complete protein and are full of good fats (about 30%) and high in carbohydrates. They are also high in folate! They taste delicious once all the tannins have been removed (by leaching into water). And, for the most part - they are free if you live in a temperate climate! 

I started this post last year - at the start of my acorn journey:

Its early autumn here in Melbourne and the acorns are ripening and dropping off the oaks. I've wanted to try eating acorns for a few years now, but some oaks only have acorns every other year and that was the case last year in Tassie. Imagine my glee last week when I found a huge oak tree at Eltham College - where I was doing an awesome course with creative permie Robin Clayfield. I got some help to pick up a couple of kilos and promised acorn biscuits to the group. Unfortunately, acorns take alot of processing, particularly to get the tannins out. It took about 5 days for me to go from acorn to edible mush ready to cook with, too late for the course but not too late to try it out on my unsuspecting parents. Well actually they were suspecting, I've tried stuff out on them before.

How to process acorns

Acorns are delicious and good for you once the tannins are removed. 

Peeling raw: Tamara's method 1

if you use a nut cracker you can get into the peeling groove - I often do it while watching Dr Who or the like.

Then I grind up the 'nut' and wash in water. Drain through a tea towel in a colander. Wash with water a few times a day until the tannins are removed - the tartness disappears. Will have a grainy texture once dried.

Peeling raw then boil: Tamara's method 2
Peel the acorns in their raw state and remove any dodgy bits. Place the nuts into plenty of water and boil for 10 minutes. Lots of tannin should come out. Drain and boil again. Repeat until the tannins are gone and the nuts taste good.

Boiling method: Taj's method 1

If you boil them for 10 mins in plenty of water, drain and boil again for 10 mins the shells should come away more easily. Drain and discard all the shells. Continue to boil the acorns until all the tannin is gone. Can take many boils. Will be soft and silky when wet and smooth when dried.

This last week I used a method that is about halfway between Taj and my methods. It made the best bread ever. Probably the easiest of all the methods here :)

Boil, grind and rinse: Tamara's method 3

If you boil them for 10 mins in plenty of water, drain and boil again for 15 mins the shells should come away more easily. drain and Discard all the shells. Put the 'nuts' in a food processor and pulverise. then I drain them using a tea towel in a colander. Do this rinse as many times as it takes for the pulp to lose its tannins - that tartness. I do this outdoors near a tap and drain into buckets I use for watering. Mine normally takes about half a week if I'm washing them at least once a day :)

Dry or cook:

Once the tannin is removed you can dry the pulp in the sun or the oven, or use wet in a bread or pikelet straight away.

Acorn piklets -  beat an egg, acorn flour, maple syrup, baking powder and cook! Serve with maple syrup for a perennial tree based feast! Very Permaculture!

Link here to my youTube video making acorn bread, using flour from all of the above methods!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not pick the acorns from the tree. They are not ripe, they are bitter and won't open even when you boil them forever!!! These things we can learn only from getting out there and experimenting!!! Get to it people!!!!!

FINALLY: I found an acorn that requires no further rinsing once it is boiled and shelled! It turns out that eating an acorn from every oak tree I find IS a good way to find that pot of gold at the end of the acorn rainbow! Hooray!!!! Have a look at the huge oaks in St Ardauld next time you are up that way, the acorns are small but taste so good with almost no processing!!!

At the Upwey Food Swap - I got some very good swaps for my acorn bread and my acorn flour! 

Surprise fact 1 - if you put whole cracked acorns in half a bucket of water and let it sit for a while it will start to smell like antiseptic. This brew will get your hands super clean and even get slug slime off!

Surprise fact 2 - 300kg of acorns will give you 100kg of pork - an excellent food to meat ratio!

Baking that is good for you!

Essene Bread

There is a recipe in this year's Permculture Diary for Essene Bread by Carey 'Eco' Priest. I've been getting back into cooking recently, mainly due to hanging out with Lisa, who is a spectacular cook! Life in the Tagari office is punctuated with apple pies with home made pastry and homegrown apples, cinnamon scrolls, chestnut cake... mmm chestnut cake...

Where was I? oh yes, Essene bread. Its a bread made from sprouted grain. I did a small one to start off with, about 2 cups of whole organic oats (I love oats and they grow them locally) just sprouted with a short tail. They took about 4 days to get to this stage.

Grind up the sprouts. I used a mortar and pestle and got into it so much I had to take my jumpers off on an icy night in Tassie. You can use a food processor, which I might do next time, being careful not to burn it out, or an old fashioned mincer.

I probably needed to mince a bit further from the stage below but it worked anyway

Then I kneaded and shape the sticky dough, wetting the hands regularly. The oats didn't take too much kneading but apparently wheat likes lots and rye none at all!

Once shaped I created a non stick surface using my breakfast cereal, rolled oats and rolled quinoa and placed the dough on top.

Ducky likes to inspect the work

Then its into a very low oven or solar cooker if you have one (they rock). I used the wood stove here on low and roasted chestnuts on the top while I was waiting.

I didn't think to photograph the finished product in the morning so you'll have to take my word for it that it turned a lovely caramel colour and everyone at work enjoyed their small pieces. I finished off the overly crunchy bits (meant to cook for 2 hours or so but I had left it in overnight) as snacks all afternood and was extremely happy to know I was nibbling away on tasty baked goods that were not bad for me! Awesome. Next time I'm going to make a loaf and some biscuits. Fabulous!

Essene Biscuits made with sprouted wheat and honey, minced in a food processor with some difficulty - I had to add some oat milk - I can see why people use old fashioned mincers.

I added honey for extra sweetness and I forgot to knead it (possibly because it was a bit sloppy from the machine).

They were cooked on baking paper spread with oats to make an awesome non stick but natural surface.

Goey on the inside, needed more drying time but yummy

Try a recipe from

http://www.growyouthful.com/recipes/sourdough-essene.php