I've just got a new lot of pepperberries in, please let me know if you need any as they are a seasonal thing. Pepperberries can be used just like you would your normal pepper in a grinder.

They are fairly hot so use with a little care at first. They have a faint eucalyptus aroma which reminds your of the Australian bush, I use the berries and the leaf all the time in my cooking and absolutely love it.

Mountain pepperleaf comes from the same bush, it's just the leaf that is ground to a fine power, sprinkle onto food or as you're cooking, perhaps not so strong as the berries, but still with it's own unique flavour.

I hope that you all have a great Australia Day today and stay safe on the roads.

We are going to celebrate very simply with a BBQ and cook some Spanish Mackeral that a friend just caught on the beautiful Coolum coast. I'm going to cook it in foil with some lemon myrtle and mountain pepper plus plus, I'll take some pics and let you know how it goes.

Have a great day
Jude

An "old bushie" told me the other day that if you smoke some water and put it on your bush tomatoes they grow well. Bush tomatoes, as we know, grow in the heat of the desert and need a good bushfire to propogate. Now if you take your billy-can and put it over a fire and allow the smoke of the fire to get in the water then when its cold water your bush tomatoes, they will love it and prosper!

The bush tomatoes pictured opposite are the dried version, you can buy them from www.makingtracks.com.au. When using grind them first.

Wattle Seed wild harvested.........Botanical name....Acacia victoriae.....Common names  ....Elegant wattle, Prickly wattle, Gundabluey, Bramble wattle, Elegant acacia.
 
Traditional Aboriginals used A. victoriae in arid regions of Australia as a food source. Occuring in all main land states.

Women would collect seed pods from the trees when ripe, separate seed 'yandy' clean in a wirra. Parch by fire, pound and ground into a flour. Mix water with flour to make a dough, then place in fire coals/ash to get a "jonny cake."

Green pods fully formed were also lightly roasted and the seed eaten.

In plentiful times seed could be stored away, it has a very hard seed coat. From the legumaceae family it has a pea flavour. Having a high protein level approx 17%, carbohydrate 41%, fibre 29%,fat 3 % (Brand&Cherikoff 1985) and a low Gi average 1480+270 KJ /100gms (Brand &Maggire  1992).

 
Most of todays  uses are based around  making a roasted  hazel-nutty flavour from the seed. By roasting the raw wattle seed until it pops (similar to pop corn). This new unique flavour has many uses in coffee like beverages(caffine free), essences, beer, baking, confectionary, dairy and marinades.

Over the past few years even the pod/husk of A. victoriae have been researched for its medical properties in the fight against cancer.