#115 Help with wild food foraging
I'm looking for help in identifying wild food in urban environments.
Can anyone help me with bush tucker and feral species in Sydney CBD and surrounds?
Page 1 of 1
Experiment categories
Live local groups
2 people have had a go
Similar experiments documented by other users. If you're inspired by this, or have done something like it already, click the "Do this experiment" button and add your story!
Recent comments
-
The live local challenge!
-
Making Our Home Sustainable
-
We are what we do
Comments (21)
Hi gareth,
Would love to get into that myself. The edible weeds are expecially intersting. I can't offer much help but on road sides there are often lilly pillies (which I have boiled down to make jam) and grevillias can be boiled to use the nectar as a sweet drink.
You can also eat chickweed as a salad green, and Warrigal greens is supposed to grow wild around this area,but i have never seen it.
Warrigal greens is another name for New Zealand spinach. It has a leaf like English spinach, only more like a succulent. Wonderful eating, and grows like a weed!
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney has a lillypilly tree. It's already identified for you! ;-) See Julian's experiment on Scrumping for more on this topic http://www.livelocal.org.au/experiment/86/scrumpers-delight
I came across an edible weeds database a few years ago - http://weedyconnection.com/database/
You can search by state.
I am now getting an internet security warning when I try and visit the site but all the content is still there.
Scrumper's Delight is starting to expand in preparation for a new project in local living called OHSI Food (pronounced Aussie).
The map now includes farms within five hours radius of Sydney and potential community pickup points "City Cousins" to get your box of fresh produce.
We're taking inspiration from a mob in Brisbane called Food Connect http://www.foodconnect.com.au
I have just got into this in Melbourne. There is a great field-guide book called "Wild Food Plants of Australia' by Tim Low that has images and the areas particular items grow. There have also been edible weed walks in Melbourne suburbs and the guy that organises them recommends the book 'useful weeds at our doorstep' by NSW naturopath Pat Collins (buy online). I hope this helps- I have put up a chickweed recipe on my blog too...
Rumour has it that a radical map of Sydney exists and shows where all the best fruit trees, free food an dumpsters are....
Will keep peeps posted.
Sorry Jess, the rad map was more about groups and projects. didn't get finished any way. Would have been great to expand into something like what you're imagining, but unfortunately,it fizzled out.
Oh, Dany-lions (sorry not sure of correct french like spelling) are great. You eat the leaves, and the root can be used as a coffee/tea like substitute. I realy horrible weed that should be irradicate is prickly pear- big flat leaf like loabs and rather prickly, wiht little purple or orange fruits.I live on dandy and prickly pear and bread for a bout a month sleaping rough round the mediteranean. Good times.
In sydney I eat
Dandy lions
Prickly Pear,
Lilly Pilly
The bass of Gymea Lilly leafs (flower stalk and root tubers also eddible - all are rich in starch- beware the poison in the flowers!)
The bass of Lamandra longifolia (startch) councils plant these all over the place (native)
Very young tender thisles
Comalina cynea (native verison of wandering jew/cerrping christian) has a blue flower opposed to the whit flower of the introduced Tradacantia (non native wandering dew/creeping christian). don't eat Tradescantia!
The purple berries of Dianela spp. A native reedy thing that ocuncils love to plant.
Warrigla Greens, these aare typicaly found gowiong in salty area, but can grow just about anywhere. you can be the seads pretty easy. If it is growing in a nice native patch, you might want to check you're not thrashing the bush by taking too much.
Parsely also pops up ion cracks in teh side walk sometimes.
various sweet flowers, mostyl protacea family, e.g. Gravilea, banksia, but also bottle brush, paper bark, and some eucalypts if you can get to them.
woops, 'buy the warrigal seeds' - not be the seeds (but that is a nice metaphorical ideology also!)
Thanks JP! That's ace.
Shame about the map - are there any skerrets of it remaining? I've fallen in love with the idea, and would consider salvaging remnants of you have them...
Also, I used to find centella cordifolia/Swap Pennywort around the place when I lived in Victoria. Its related to St.John's wort, and people swear by it to relieve athritis.
While I don't have much experience with foraging in Australia, one universal rule to remember is to always check the location of the plant.
Unfortunately too often in the suburbs & cities you will find contamination from traffic-pollution, pesticides, home pollution (detergents from people washing cars etc) & pet um... waste.
Don't eat from sidewalk areas & don't hesitate to ask residents who's plants spill onto common ground. It's not rude to knock on the door to ask if you can pinch a piece of fruit that may hang over the footpath & ask if they use chemical pesticides. You may even find a new friend in the process. :)
Emily, I agree it's important to be careful about where you're foraging, but you might like to read an excerpt from Phil Muley's article (Enivronmental Earth Sciences) "Can we eat fruit and produce from roadside trees and plants?" published on Michael Mobbs' website.
Phil suggests that in Australia it is safe to eat from roadside gardens & trees, and recommends that washing the food before you eat it should make it perfectly safe to enjoy.
Interesting!
Media coverage in Sydney magazine has led to me meeting many more in the street to discuss and swap vege locations - this week I've found ginkgo biloba and lemon verbena amongst others. Maybe an online web group like this should share locations?
Scrumper's Delight is one place where you can share locations.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&vps=1&jsv=159e&oe=UTF8&msa=...
Re: foraging wild food and survival: You can forage through trash for clean food, ie(mcdonalds, behind all bakeries after closing, crispy cream etc) hunt, trap or catch rats, bats, pigeon, fish and possum which are all wild and bountiful in Syndney urban environment. Most grasses if not all grasses can be eaten. Many eadible lilypods in swampy areas, and Ive found many mullberries growing in the southern Sydney swamp areas. Fresh clean water is most important for survival, as the average healthy person should last at least 5-6 weeks without food before death.
Contact the guys http://www.veryediblegardens.com
There is a course called "Edible Weeds Walk". Its in melbourne but they may know someone in Sydney.
They are also involved in www.permablitz.net.
I think there is a sydney permablitz too.
Cheers Julie
Hi Julie: You can find permablitz experiments all over live local already: this one's pretty cool. And thanks for the edible gardens link!
I teach bush tucker including edible and medicinal introduced species on the Central Coast (between Sydney and Newcastle) At the moment I'm involved in a campaign to protect a sacred site at Kariong see our facebook group (save the sacred land at Kariong) So my tours are focused locally at the moment.
I take regular tours on the Central Coast and have done foraging courses in Sydney and Newcastle. My email is jakecassar@mail.com
It's great people are showing an interest in something so environmentally important such as being more self sufficient . Cheers
Here's a link to a blog of feral fruit tree mapping. Anyone know of any groups that go mushrooming around Sydney?
http://www.greenfoot.com.au/2009/04/22/i%E2%80%99m-feral-fruit-tree-mapping/
In Brisbane you can view and contribute to a map here: http://map.blitzbrisbane.org
Leave a comment