Incorporating bush food in your garden provides an alternative food source. You may already have some but be unaware of how to use them

Muntries
Grows 30cm high, 1-3 metres wide. Berries taste like spicy apple
Warrigal Greens

Perennial, 30cm high, 1 metre wide. Alternative to spinach.  Commonly found near salt or brackish water.  The new stems, the leaves and the last 4 cm of the growing tip are edible.

Native Passionfruit

Rare, edible passion fruit native to Australia. Fruits are green-skinned, white fleshed


Pigweed

A very common bush food found all over mainland Australia.  When finely ground, the tiny black seeds can be used as a flour and are rich in protein, fat carbohydrate, iron & zinc. The juicy leaves (high in Vitamin C) can be used in salads and/or cooked like spinach.

Native Grape

Large, vigorous, attractive woody climber which can easily adapt to urban environments.  Prefers sheltered position.  It has edible dark blue berries which can be used to make wine.  To eat freshly picked it’s a good idea to discard the skin and only eat the flesh around the seeds.  One species (Cissus Opaca) has edible tubers on its roots which can be roasted.

Native Sweet Potato

Fast-growing creeper. Edible tubers

Weeping Cherry

A shrub, four metres tall, erect, with drooping branches.

The fruit is egg-shaped, pink or red. The tree look similar to a small cypress tree, but it has sweet, juicy fruits which are eaten fresh.

The sap was used by the Aboriginals as a treatment for snake bites.

Native Plum

It forms a sprawling shrub to 3m tall 5 m wide with red fruit 1-2 cm in summer and autumn.

The fruit are said to taste like salty grapes, and were a favourite of the tribal Aborigines of the area