Bush Tucker Plants: Growing and Using

BUSHTUCKER PLANTS ONLINE COURSE       

Learn to identify, grow and use Australian Indigenous Plants for Food
There are many Australian plants that are edible, and even some that are in very high demand as foods throughout the world.  The Aborigines lived off the land before white civilization came to Australia. Plants contributed significantly to their diet. Many of these native plants are worthwhile growing ‑ others might not be.  There are many different types of bush tucker foods, including:

• Nuts and seeds (eg. Acacia, Macadamia, bunya nuts)
• Drinks (eg. hot teas, infusions of nectar laden flowers, fruit juices)
• Flavourings (eg. lemon scented myrtle)
• Berries (eg. Astroloma, some Solanum species)
• Fruits (eg. quandong, Ficus macrophylla, Syzygium)
• Vegetables
• Wattle seeds ground to produce ‘flour’
• Plant roots ground to produce a paste or flour

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
   • Scope
   • Is it Edible
   • Native Plants to be Cautious with
   • Understanding Plant Toxins
   • Nutritional Value of Bush tucker
   • Plant Identification
   • Naming Plants
   • Hybrids, Varieties and Cultivars
   • Plant Families
   • Pronouncing Plant Names
   • Resources
2. Growing
   • Understanding Soil
   • Improving Soil
   • Feeding Plants
   • Growing Australian Plants on Low Fertility Soils
   • Planting Procedure
   • Mulching
   • Pruning Australian Plants
   • Propagation
   • Seed
   • Collecting, Storing, Germinating Seed
   • Difficult Seeds
   • Seed Germination Techniques
   • Handling and raising seedlings
   • Asexual Propagation (Cuttings, Division, etc)
3. Gathering
   • Introduction
   • Ethics
   • Bush Foods as A Commercial Venture
   • Gathering Acacia Seed
   • Developing a Bush Food Garden
   • Designing a Bush Garden
   • Selected Native Trees for a Bush Tucker Garden
   • Selected Shrubs for a Bush Tucker Garden
   • Selected Small Indigenous Australian Plants for a Bush Tucker Garden
   • Rainforest Gardens
   • Desert Gardens
   • Edible Arid Zone Bush Tucker plants
   • Water Management
4. Nuts and Seeds
   • Macadamia
   • Araucaria
   • Aleurites moluccana
   • Athertonia diversifolia (Atherton Oak)
   • Castanospermum australe
   • Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia
   • Acacias
   • Using Acacias (eg. Wattleseed Essense)
5. Vegetables
   • Native Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides)
   • Pigface (Carpobrotus sp.)
   • Longleaf Mat Rush (Lomandra longifolia)
   • Solanums (Bush Tomatoes or Kangaroo Apple)
   • Blechnum indicum
   • Apium prostratum (Sea Celery)
   • Native Lilies
   • Microseris lanceolata (Yam Daisy)
   • Dioscorea transversa (Wild Yams)
   • Native ginger Alpinia caerulear
   • Seaweeds
6. Fruits
   • Astroloma
   • Austromyrtus dulcis (Midgen Berry)
   • Billardiera sp (eg. Appleberry)
   • Davidsonia purescens (Davidson’s Plum)
   • Eugenia spp. and Syzygium spp. (eg. Bush Cherries)
   • Ficus (Native Figs)
   • Planchonella australis (Black Apple)
   • Quandong (Santalum)
   • Rubus sp (Native Raspberry)
   • Other Fruits ...lots more outlined
7. Flavourings, Teas, Essences
   • Backhousia
   • Curcuma (related to ginger)
   • Eucalyptus
   • Leptospermum
   • Soaked Flowers (eg. Grevillea)
   • Acacia
   • Alpinia caerulea
   • Tasmannia sp
8. Using Bush Tucker Plants
   • Develop your ability to identify, select, and develop processing procedures, for a range of varieties of bush food plants selected.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.