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Welcome to the Bush Food Blog

Celebrating Australia's native foods by sharing recipes, knowledge, and insight. Brought to you by Peppermint Ridge Farm in West Gippsland, Victoria.

We aim to promote the use of and familiarity with native ingredients in the broader Australian community. We're happy to receive submissions from those who would like to share their knowledge as well. If you'd like to contribute to the blog, drop us an email at tara@peppermintridgefarm.com.au for guidelines and submission requirements.

VIEW ALL RECIPES | VIEW ALL POSTS ON NATIVE PLANTS

Featured Posts

The Low Salt Movement – Part II

June 13, 2017

Last week, we decided to start an online conversation about the adverse reaction to restaurant meals we have had that contain too much salt. Read more about it at the post here. We’ve received numerous responses in agreement–many people feel the same way! Natalie, a guest at Peppermint Ridge, sums up a sentiment we received via email…

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Recipes

Summer recipe from Peppermint Ridge: Make your own Native Creative Dukkah

November 27, 2016

We are expecting a bumper harvest here at Peppermint Ridge as the spring rains have given everything a surge. The Finger Lime bushes are heavy with fruit, the Mountain Pepper berries are looking very plump and the Blue Quandongs have fruited for the first time – can’t wait to taste them! We have been testing…

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Bush Food Pizza

Homemade Pizzas Featuring Native Australian Flavours

June 15, 2016

We had a very special family time over the June long weekend. We all worked together to bake pizza in our woodfired oven flavoured with the native food spices of Lemon Myrtle, Mountain Pepper, Native Thyme and Strawberry Gum. These recipes are featured in our new Peppermint Ridge Farm book on growing and cooking with…

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lemon myrtle ginger tea

Lemon Myrtle + Ginger Tea: Cold Remedy

May 2, 2016

With the latest cold front to arrive, I can definitely tell that winter is coming. And of course, like clockwork, I’ve come down with a nasty cold to welcome the season. When I got sick as a child, my mum used to make me boiled ginger tea with a squeeze of lemon. At the time, I wasn’t…

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Lemon myrtle Anzac Biscuits

Lemon Myrtle Anzac Biscuits Recipe

April 25, 2016

For Anzac day every year, I make these delicious Lemon Myrtle Anzac Biscuits that add a native Australian twist to this traditional treat. Anzac biscuits were originally sent to soldiers in World War I because they kept long enough to survive the long journey. It has been claimed that the original Anzac biscuits from Queensland actually had…

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Strawberry Gum Ice Cream

Strawberry Gum Ice Cream or Custard

April 13, 2016

Earlier this week, I posted an article about the wonderful flavours and exciting benefits of Strawberry Gum (Eucalyptus olida), including a recipe for my Strawberry Gum Bliss Balls. I’d like to share another one of my favourite Strawberry Gum recipes with you–this one is versatile and can be made into either a custard or ice…

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Strawberry Gum Bliss Balls

Strawberry Gum Bliss Balls

April 12, 2016

We have been experimenting with Strawberry Gum (Eucalyptus olida) here at Peppermint Ridge as the dried leaves make a wonderful spice. The fresh leaves are fine to use in cooking too and will keep in a ziplock bag in the fridge for weeks. Strawberry Gum is a very rare tree from Northern New South Wales…

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Slow Roasted Beef Short Ribs: Cooking with Australia’s Bush Foods

August 10, 2015

I love experimenting with our wonderful bush foods.  It is so easy to invent new dishes if you have the plants growing in your garden – just like the other herbs we are used to growing. Many of them like to grow in pots so you can keep them close to the kitchen door –…

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Illawarra Plums

Illawarra Plums – Another Superfood

July 15, 2015

We have just picked many kilos of our Illawarra plums (Podocarpus elatus). The Illawarra Plum is a small plant indigenous to New South Wales and Queensland. It is also called a Brown Pine and has a false fruit which is a fleshy sweet stalk attached to a big stone which makes it easy to harvest the…

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Autumn bush food cropping at Peppermint Ridge Farm

April 29, 2015

Autumn is my favourite time of year at the farm as the days are mild with light soaking rain and the weather very settled. The light seems different and the slanting afternoon light is wonderful viewed from the terrace. The bush food garden is looking its best and with all three layers now well grown…

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Great new bushfood mushroom sauce

September 9, 2014

My aim is to encourage foodies and gardeners to plant Australian herbs and spice plants into their own gardens and have them ready to harvest every day. I have been using Lemon Myrtle and Mountain Pepper in a wide range of dishes to great effect. I have found the best way is to grind both…

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New Bush Food Spice Mix and Slow Winter Soup

August 10, 2014

We continue to experiment with our Australian Spices, full of flavour and punch and then add all of those vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and lutein (keeps your macular healthy) how can you lose? We have been blending the spices and have some great combinations. Our favourite at the moment is  Mountain Pepper and Lemon Myrtle.  Add…

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Lemon Myrtle Tea

Lemon Myrtle Tea Infusion

June 24, 2014

Lemon Myrtle is a wonderful native spice.  We make a delicious Lemon Myrtle Tea Infusion daily and really enjoy the benefits. Here are some quick tips on how to use this bush food: Lemon Myrtle Tea Infusion We make Lemon Myrtle tea everyday – it is very uplifting. All you have to do is to pick…

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lemon myrtle mountain pepper hummus

Hummus Recipe with Mountain Pepper and Lemon Myrtle

June 23, 2014

Hummus is one of my favourite fast food treats.  I am sharing a much loved hummus recipe that I have created to showcase the wonderful flavours of bush foods.  My passion is to encourage people to grow Australian spices in their own backyard – you can then use these native spices in everyday recipes. Experiment with these flavors…

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Bush Food Cooking School Recipe: Native Creative Pickled Carrot

June 7, 2014

Native Creative Pickled Carrot Recipe Today we ran a new cooking school called an Asian Style Lunch with an Australian Twist. After a recent trip to Malaysia and Vietnam, I thought our lovely Australian Spices would fit perfectly with many Asian dishes – the lunch recipes are a result of that thinking. Here is a…

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More Posts from this Category

Native Plants and Spices

Fresh Honey from Lemon Myrtle Blossoms

April 17, 2017

Autumn 2017 has brought our first harvest of lemon myrtle honey from our 3 hives. Many thanks to Meg Platte from the Bunyip Beekeeping Group for setting up and maintaining the hives for us. The honey does have a distinctive floral taste due to the large crop of lemon myrtle flowers that the bees have…

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native tamarind

Native Tamarind (Diploglottis campellii) Fruits at Peppermint Ridge

April 12, 2017

Our native Small Leaved Tamarind has fruited for the first time and we are excited to be able to use the fruit for the first time in the Schoolhouse for our event on April 23. The bright orange juicy flesh makes delicious sauces and jams with a tart and distinctive tangy taste. We plan to make…

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Making Flour from Lomandra longifolia (Spiny Headed Mat Rush)

March 1, 2017

Hi again! It was a busy summer here at Peppermint Ridge as we’ve moved from monthly events to fortnightly lunches on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month (come visit us)! Our native garden is flourishing and we love this time of year as the lemon myrtles are flowering, giving the bees a lovely nectar meal…

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Having your bush food garden and eating it too!

January 6, 2015

The bush food garden here at Peppermint Ridge Farm continues to thrive and we are enjoying watching all of the fruits fatten and the edible leaves glowing. The anise myrtle has a particular secret. If you eat the the new red leaves you will discover they taste like a soft  sweet licorice lolly but without…

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Finger Limes and Mountain Pepper growing well at Peppermint Ridge

December 10, 2014

This new summer rain has given a great growth boost to our bush food plants. We will have a great crop of finger limes and mountain pepper and the  new anise myrtle plants are growing fast in their pots. I have been experimenting with grinding up the fresh leaves of our native herbs with salt and…

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Experimenting with Bush Food at Peppermint Ridge Farm’s Native Creative Cooking School

November 12, 2014

We are always thinking up new ideas here at Peppermint Ridge for using bush foods to encourage others to put these wonderful plants in their gardens. We know that as soon as we increased the diversity of plants in our gardens the diversity of native animals and insects increased too. We now have an exciting…

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bush food superfoods

Are Bush Foods Superfoods?

July 9, 2014

Australian bush foods show tremendous potential in many ways particularly in providing health benefits, so I think they could be superfoods. Testing at the CSIRO and comparing to Blueberry has revealed that plants such as Lemon Myrtle, Anise Myrtle and Mountain Pepper (these grow well in Victorian gardens)  contain high levels of antioxidants, Vitamin E, Vitamin…

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Fantastic Warrigal Greens

June 11, 2014

We have been growing Warrigal Greens at Peppermint Ridge for many years and we really enjoy its distinctive flavour. The plant scrambles over the ground and acts as a great ground cover to shade out weeds. If we get too many growing we feed the excess to our chickens and sheep – they love them. You…

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More Posts from this Category

Other Posts

The Low Salt Movement – Part I

June 6, 2017

Do you love going out for restaurant meals? Do you suffer later from a reaction to heavily salted foods? We really love going out to enjoy someone else’s cooking but we often suffer a reaction from the excessive salt used in the dishes. We can’t sleep, our heart rate is elevated, we are very thirsty and…

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Bush Food Flavours

Book a table at The Schoolhouse

February 1, 2017

The Schoolhouse at Peppermint Ridge Farm is open on select Sundays. Bookings essential–request a booking here.

HIGHLIGHTING

  • Native Pantry Cooking School Saturday July 23 2022 $170.00 (incl. GST)
  • Tour and Taste Event Sunday July 10 2022 $110.00 (incl. GST)
  • Tour and Taste Event Saturday September 24 2022 $110.00 (incl. GST)

NEWS FROM THE FARM

  • We have been working with a number of schools and kindergartens to develop native bushfood gardens. We can assist with garden design and supply of bushfood plants suitable for educational settings. http://peppermintridgefarm.com.au/education
  • We have limited quantities of freshly picked finger limes available-200g and 500g. PURCHASE HERE!
  • The nursery now stocks a wide range of advanced native food plants including sexed mountain peppers, strawberry gum, lemon myrtle, finger lime and anise myrtle!
  • Peppermint Ridge Farm is proud to support the Kat Muscat Fellowship. The fellowship provides funding  support to a young writer or editor. https://expressmedia.org.au/programs/the-kat-muscat-fellowship/
  • Check out this article from Broadsheet https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/travel/article/bookmark-eight-lesser-known-wonders-gippsland

 

GIFT VOUCHERS

Our gift vouchers are a popular choice if you are looking for a different experience for a friend or loved one. The vouchers can be used for our regular tour and taste lunches, Native Pantry cooking classes, to purchase native food plants from the nursery, native food spices and teas or our book, Australian Native Food Harvest.

Contact us to arrange gift vouchers.

Australian Native Food Harvest by Julie Weatherhead
Australian Native Food Harvest: a guide for the passionate cook and gardener. Purchase online now!

PRESENTATIONS ON NATIVE BUSHFOODS

Our presentations to libraries and community groups provide an opportunity to learn more about Australia’s wonderful native food plants:

  • history of native food plants
  • plants that grow best in your garden
  • growing and propagating native food plants
  • culinary uses

We also attend a number of field days, garden expos and festivals across Victoria.

Trip Adviser listing:
Trip Advisor Reviews:
PRF location

CONTACT   |  PRIVACY POLICY  |  TERMS OF SERVICE

 

Peppermint Ridge Farm acknowledges the Kulin Nation of peoples as the first inhabitants and the traditional custodians of this land where we live, learn and work.

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