
- antioxidants to keep your cells healthy,
- antibacterial and antifungal properties that can kill unwanted bacteria and fungus and has been used to treat wounds ,
- phytonutrients that are anti – inflammatory and assist with gut health.
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 a tamarind and ginger sauce that will complement both meats and vegetables. The flesh can be removed when the fruit is ripe and frozen until required for use in the kitchen.
We also plan to sow the fresh seed once the fruit is removed to grow these attractive plants to share with other gardeners.
The Small Leaved Tamarind (Diploglottis campellii) is a very rare tree from Queensland and is one of our success stories here in Victoria where it has grown to a shrub about 3 metres high and has been frost and drought tolerant. This plant is an attractive addition to any garden as the bright green pinnate leaves fill the mid space of a garden well. The fruits drop to the ground when ripe and look like the garden floor is strewn with bright orange lollies!
The native Tamarinds are related to the Lychee and they have similar juicy flesh surrounding a large seed that will germinate quickly if freshly sown.
Have you tried the native tamarind? What do you think about its taste?
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 that we have been propagating here at the Farm. The tree is hardy if you can get a hold of one. Strawberry Gum leaves can be made into a spice by first drying and then grinding the leaves in a food processor – the ground leaves will last for 2 years if kept in a cool, dark place.
The best news about Strawberry Gum is that it tastes great – a bit like vanilla, strawberry, or passionfruit – but it really has a flavour all its own that is hard to describe. This unique flavour comes from an essential oil in the leaf called Methyl Cinnamate, which acts as an enhancer to any dish.
This spice will enhance and draw out flavour to anything with berries, tomato based sauces, dairy or coconut milk dishes such as custards, ice creams, or pannacotta. It also makes a wonderful hot drink when a little is added to your favourite black or green tea.
Use sparingly as the flavour can be strong, you can always add more if the taste is too subtle.
There are amazing health benefits to using the leaves in your cooking. The chemicals found in the leaves are high in antioxidants and the oil is antimicrobial against foodborne human pathogens, food spoilage bacteria, and yeasts assisting in keeping a healthy microbial balance in the human gut. Very important if you have been taking antibiotics or have been unwell.
So there are no negatives to using this plant in the kitchen!
TOP TIP:
Infuse the leaves in hot milk, sugar, and cream to make the base for custard, ice cream, or pannacotta.
Note: coconut or almond milk can be used just as effectively. We like to add a small amount of the chopped dried leaf to black tea for an extra antioxidant and flavour lift.
Here is a recipe to get you inspired–more coming later this week!
Note: If you’d like to taste the wonderful flavours of Strawberry Gum and other native Australian edible plants, come to our Bush Food Flavours Lunch this Sunday, April 17. Bookings available here.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Have you tried Strawberry Gum? What do you think?
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 delicious fruit.
Research and testing into the fruit by the CSIRO and Food Science Australia as recently as 2013 (Published in the British Journal of Nutrition June 28) have proven that compared to the blueberry it has more than 3 times the antioxidant activity. The study is exciting because the plums were shown reduce the growth of colon cancer cells and could be very useful in cancer treatments. Other studies at the CSIRO in Adelaide are looking into the ability of the plums to slow the growth & replication of fat cells in our bodies to help with maintaining bodyweight. Add to this that the fruit tastes great fresh and is very juicy!
I plan to make some delicious savoury and sweet sauces to go with the meat and desserts we are planning for our regular monthly lunches here at Peppermint Ridge Farm. The plant is very easy to grow in Victoria as well and has proven to be beautiful garden addition with glossy green leaves and prolific fruit in winter.
So get going and plant some for yourselves. To get fruit you will need to plant both a male and female plant as they are dioecious. You can plant many females to the one male plant. our plum is about 4 metres tall after 8 years.
And here’s my favourite: an Illawarra Plum Sauce. Enjoy!
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 and lush.
Cropping has been good so far – we have started to pick the red finger limes and the green ones will follow when they are fat enough. I plan to use these wonderful fruits in a variety of ways. Some of my favourites are to make a finger lime curd with our fresh eggs – we will team this with maybe some lemon myrtle pannacotta or freshly baked meringues with a marshmallow centre or use it as filling for fresh vanilla cupcakes – all delicious. Fingerlime cheesecake is also wonderful – the red zest gives a very interesting addition to the dishes.
The Mountain Pepper berry crop is ready for harvest too and each year the number of berries increases. A good thing too because their flavour is quite unique. We dry them slowly and then grind them in a pepper grinder fresh for each dish or use them whole in a sauce to steep the pepper flavour. The leaves are also full of that hot pepper taste all year round. I like to grind them with lemon myrtle leaves to create a lovely herb crumb. Tonight I rubbed that mix into a leg of lamb and slow roasted it for a few hours – quite delicious. The berries will keep in a jar for a long time – that doesn’t happen here as we like to use them in dishes too often. Be creative in your own kitchen with these wonderful plants.
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 the sugar – bonus. The mature leaves are high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals so perhaps the immature ones have some of these properties too.
The mature leaves make a wonderfully refreshing tea as well as great ice cream.
One of my interests is in encouraging gardeners to add bush foods to their flower and vegetable gardens. This year we have watched the growth of the finger limes, native blueberries, midyim berries, native currants and pepper berries and continue to propagate these in our bush food nursery.
Some of these fruits have very high nutritional qualities – the currant has very high levels of vitamin C, the pepper berries are high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Not all of the fruits have been tested by food scientists, but anecdotal evidence of the native blueberry discusses upset stomachs from eating too many of them. This could be due to a high level of nutrients or a presence of toxins, so caution in eating untested plants is always advised and never go eating fruits or leaves on forest walks as some plants are proven to be toxic (always buy your edible native plants from a reliable and knowledgeable source).
Not only do the tested fruits taste wonderful, the plants are very attractive additions to garden design. These plants are easily grown organically as they are not susceptible to attack by fungus, bacteria or insects – this is from 16 years of trials here. Some plants need a little protection from strong hot & cold winds and dry soil such as the Mountain Pepper and Lemon Myrtle, bit most are tolerant of tough conditions.
It is a lot of fun making up new recipes for these wonderful plants, and over the Christmas break we made up a new recipe for our macadamia, salted caramel and chocolate tarts. The new base is a bit softer and has a lovely chewy texture which we think is a great improvement on the original recipe. The whole eating experience is one of a toasted macadamia biscuit base, a soft gooey salted caramel centre and a crisp dark chocolate topping. This recipe will feature at our next cooking school class next month.
Copyright © 2015 Julie Weatherhead, Peppermint Ridge Farm. All rights reserved.
At Peppermint Ridge Farm we are passionate about Australian native foods and spices. We run bush food cooking classes, tours of our Australian Spice Garden, and foodie events on site in Tynong North, Victoria. We are also available for private functions. Find us on our website: www.peppermintridgefarm.com.au.
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 garlic, ginger would be good too – even better to use the native ginger. These ‘herb crumbs’ spice up any dish.
We are doing a lot of experimenting and love anise myrtle – have made an amazing ice cream with it that we teamed with our own strawberries and rhubarb poached in pomegranate juice. Last week we marinated pork belly with anise myrtle before slow cooking it – the result was amazing – it creates quite a different flavour.
That’s the thing about bush foods, the flavours they produce are hard to describe because there is often nothing to compare them to. Strawberry gum is a good example – the oil in the leaf smells a bit of strawberry, passionfruit and vanilla – quite unique. But when you team it with your favourite dishes it creates whole new wonderful flavours that defy description. Try it and let me know if you agree.
Here at Peppermint Ridge we are thinking about how to create a Christmas lunch for our family that is spiced with Australian flavours, we will then carry that on to creating a truly different Australia Day lunch on Monday Jan 26 as our first event for 2015.
I think the finger limes should be great marinating fresh salmon and we love creating fresh sorbets with them. Have a look at some shots I have just taken of some of our crops that are growing fast – finger lime and mountain pepper. I have added a pic of our kangaroo family that doesn’t mind coming up close to the house.
Copyright © 2014 Julie Weatherhead, Peppermint Ridge Farm. All rights reserved.
At Peppermint Ridge Farm we are passionate about Australian native foods and spices. We run bush food cooking classes, tours of our Australian Spice Garden, and foodie events on site in Tynong North, Victoria. We are also available for private functions. Find us on our website: www.peppermintridgefarm.com.au.
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 array of native birds and animals that visit every day.
The dishes that can be prepared from these plants seem to have no end and we have put together some new ideas for the cooking school here on Saturday November 15. I hope that these ideas will encourage you to have a go yourself.
As we have many people visiting who cannot have gluten we have been experimenting with that issue and found that bush foods accommodate very easily into gluten free dishes.
The dishes we plan to teach people on Saturday are:
What we really enjoy is growing most of the ingredients for these dishes in our gardens and we will pick them at the start of the class- you can’t get any fresher food! The Finger Limes have finished flowering and the tiny fruits are starting to swell. see the pic attached of them in flower. They are a unique Australian Microcitrus and very delicious.
We mustn’t forget that one of the tastiest nuts is the Australian Macadamia – the trees will fruit in Victoria even though it is a tropical zone tree.
Another wonderful sweet treat is the crunchy Macadamia, salted caramel and chocolate tarts that we have been making for visitors.
Happy cooking everyone!
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 of the leaves together in a food processor and they are ready to use in many dishes.
Mountain Pepper is an interesting plant. Like many plants they have male and female plants. The flowers on each are quite different. The picture shows the male flowers, they have the stamens that provide the pollen to fertilise the female flowers (which have the stigma to receive the pollen) – these flowers then develop the peppercorns that are dried and used for cooking. However, both male and female plants have lovely green leaves and red stems – all of which have a spicy peppery oil that is delicious in cooking.
Mountain Pepper prefers some protection from frosts and hot winds – provide some summer watering. This recipe uses the pepper leaves. I used it on top of a perfectly cooked steak, but you can use it on chicken and it is great with stir fries, curries, soups, risotto, pasta, fritters and frittatas.
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.