Explore a whole new world of gardening and culinary delights.
Garden School Training Program -Learn about Australian Bush Foods by Home Studies
There are hundreds, if not thousands of plants from Australia that can be used as foods. These include fruits, vegetables and nuts you may well have never thought about, let alone tasted; aswell as flavourings, extracts and additives that can be used with traditional foodstuffs to create a whole new slant on culinary experience. This is a course that may be equally valuable and relevant to a nurseryman, naturalist, cook, restauranteur, or anyone else.
Lesson Structure
There are 8 lessons in this course:
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Introduction
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Scope
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Is it Edible
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Native Plants to be Cautious with
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Understanding Plant Toxins
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Nutritional Value of Bush tucker
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Plant Identification
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Naming Plants
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Hybrids, Varieties and Cultivars
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Plant Families
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Pronouncing Plant Names
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Resources
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Growing
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Understanding Soil
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Improving Soil
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Feeding Plants
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Growing Australian Plants on Low Fertility Soils
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Planting Procedure
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Mulching
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Pruning Australian Plants
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Propagation
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Seed
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Collecting, Storing, Germinating Seed
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Difficult Seeds
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Seed Germination Techniques
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Handling and raising seedlings
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Asexual Propagation (Cuttings, Division, etc)
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Gathering
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Introduction
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Ethics
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Bush Foods as A Commercial Venture
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Gathering Acacia Seed
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Developing a Bush Food Garden
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Designing a Bush Garden
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Selected Native Trees for a Bush Tucker Garden
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Selected Shrubs for a Bush Tucker Garden
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Selected Small Indigenous Australian Plants for a Bush Tucker Garden
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Rainforest Gardens
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Desert Gardens
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Edible Arid Zone Bush Tucker plants
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Water Management
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Nuts and Seeds
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Macadamia
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Araucaria
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Aleurites moluccana
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Athertonia diversifolia (Atherton Oak)
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Castanospermum australe
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Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia
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Acacias
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Using Acacias (eg. Wattleseed Essense)
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Vegetables
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Native Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides)
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Pigface (Carpobrotus sp.)
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Longleaf Mat Rush (Lomandra longifolia)
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Solanums (Bush Tomatoes or Kangaroo Apple)
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Blechnum indicum
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Apium prostratum (Sea Celery)
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Native Lilies
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Microseris lanceolata (Yam Daisy)
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Dioscorea transversa (Wild Yams)
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Native ginger Alpinia caerulear
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Seaweeds
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Fruits
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Astroloma
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Austromyrtus dulcis (Midgen Berry)
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Billardiera sp (eg. Appleberry)
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Davidsonia purescens (Davidson’s Plum)
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Eugenia spp. and Syzygium spp. (eg. Bush Cherries)
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Ficus (Native Figs)
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Planchonella australis (Black Apple)
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Quandong (Santalum)
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Rubus sp (Native Raspberry)
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Other Fruits, lots more outlined
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Flavourings, Teas, Essences
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Backhousia
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Curcuma (related to ginger)
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Eucalyptus
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Leptospermum
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Soaked Flowers (eg. Grevillea)
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Acacia
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Alpinia caerulea
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Tasmannia sp
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Using Bush Tucker Plants
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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.
Aims
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Discuss the nature and scope of bush tucker plants.
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Review the way bush tucker plants are accurately identified.
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Describe how to cultivate a range of bush tucker plants.
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Describe how bush foods are harvested from the wild and how to set up a cultivated bush food garden.
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Outline the cultivation, harvest and use of various bush tucker nuts and seeds.
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Explain the cultivation, harvest and use of various bush tucker vegetables
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Explain the cultivation, harvest and use of various bush tucker fruits
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Explain the cultivation, harvest and use of various bush tucker plants that are used to flavour foods or beverages
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Describe the preparation of bush tucker.
Farming of bush tucker species offers many benefits; it reduces risk of failed and or poor quality produce that can be associated with wild harvests. It cuts back the labour intensive high cost of wild collection and is not dependant on the unreliability of wild plant production. With restrictions to the access of wild sources in the near future (through government intervention), access will be limited. It is currently estimated that about 80% of bush food is wild collected. This figure will be greatly reduced over the coming decade; almost all bush-food will be produced on commercial farms in the near future.
The potential for Australian Bush Food Plants both within and outside Australia seems assured.
Extract from our Notes:
Acacias for Food
Various parts of a wattle may be edible.
It all depends upon the species, the part of the plant being eaten, and how it is prepared; for instance:
- Seeds from many wattles species is edible, but some can be toxic and only around 10% are appetizing to eat.
- The gum that oozes from wounds in the wood of acacias can also be edible; but while some are known to be sweet and are prized as a food; many are simply not tried and proven as a food source, and it may be dangerous to try them
- The flowers of some wattles are also known to be appetizing and edible (but again, not all)
- Even the pods of a few wattle species have been used as a human food source
WARNING: Do not attempt to eat anything that you have not
positively identified as a safe food source.
Edible Flowers: Acacia floribunda, decurrens
Seeds
Wattle seeds have been harvested and eaten by aboriginal people in Australia.
Around 10% of Acacias (ie. Approximately 50 species) are known to produce edible seeds. Of these, three have been more widely eaten than others. Some species are known to be toxic and many are simply not palatable. The three most common species are:
Wattles are easy to grow but collecting and preparing seed to eat can be time consuming.
How Seeds are Eaten
Seed is roasted and ground to create a paste The paste traditionally has been made into small cakes and baked.
Seeds can also be boiled to extract the flavour and create an “essence” that can then be used for flavouring foods (eg. Ice cream) or as a beverage (ie. Wattle seed coffee)
Harvest and Processing
Pods need to first be picked, dried (usually in the sun), and have seeds extracted.
The seeds then need to be cleaned (You only want clean seed –remove any dirt, pods, twigs etc)/
The clean seed then should be cooked (either steamed or roasted).
Cooked seed may be stored for a period; ans packets of roasted seeds may be found for sale commercially at times.
The cooked seeds are commonly ground into a paste; adding a small quantity of water as it is being ground. The paste can then be frozen for later use.
The flavour can be intense, so often only a small quantity of paste is needed to flavour something.
Making Wattleseed Essence
2 to 3 tablespoons of ground wattleseed can be added to 1 cup of water and brought to the boil for 6 minutes. Strain and allow to cool, This essence can be kept in a refrigerator for 2 weeks or longer in the freezer.
The essence can then be used as a base for flavouring various foods or beverages.
Eg. 1 part wattleseed essence to 3 or 4 parts water, with sugar (to taste) produces a wattleseed coffee.
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
Why Choose This Course
- Course notes and materials are unique (written by our staff) and up to date (most revised annually) –our graduates are more up to date with what they learn than many other institutions.
- We don’t just present you with information; we also work to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field.
- Start any time, study at your own pace, study from anywhere
- Don’t waste time and money traveling to and from classes
- More choices in your assignment work –courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you.
- Tutors more accessible than many colleges – academics are hard at work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day, and answering individual queries from students are top priority and always attended to within a day –often within an hour.
- Be treated like an individual –don’t get lost in a crowd of other students. Our tutors interact with you one to one.
- Extra help at no extra cost where needed.. If you find a task you can’t do, we will help you through it or give you another option.
- Support after graduation –We will advise on getting work, starting a business, putting a CV together. We will promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Any graduate who asks will be helped.
- Support from a team of a dozen professional horticulturists, living in different parts of the UK, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones of Australia.
About ACS
ACS was started in 1979 by John Mason, who at the time was a gardening author, horticultural consultant and lecturer in horticulture at several colleges across Melbourne (in Australia). Over the summer that year John discovered that there were thousands of applicants going to be turned away from horticulture courses at Burnley Horticultural College (now Melbourne University). There were simply too few courses being offered for the number of people wanting to study horticulture in Australia. This situation prompted a move to establish a correspondence course at Burnley; but after months of unsuccessful lobbying for support from government; John wrote a course, and with help from a colleague at Council of Adult Education, marketed it.
Standards were originally set in line with what were seen to be the standards of Australia's top horticultural college; and over the years, those standards have never been reduced. This makes our courses longer and more demanding than some other colleges; but it has also led to us building a credibility that stands tall in the horticulture industry across the world.
In the early 1990's John started visiting the UK and becoming involved with the horticulture industry there. Around the mid 1990's ACS began offering RHS courses, and in 2003, John was formally recognised for his contribution to British Horticulture by being made a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. ACS, as a school, established an office and staff in the UK in 2001, and has expanded considerably since then. Today it is formally affiliated with five other colleges in the UK (including Warwickshire College); all of who license and deliver ACS courses.
A team of leading horticulturists work for the school's horticulture department, including 12 faculty members in both the UK and Australia
How You Study
- When you enroll, we send you an email that explains it all.
- You are given a short orientation video to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
- You are either given access to your course online, or sent a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
- You work through lessons one by one. Each lesson has at least four parts:
- An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
- Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
- Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
- Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
- Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
- You are given access to and encouraged to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
- You are provided with a "student manual" which you can refer to if and when needed. It provides a quick solution to most problems that might occur (some people never need to use this; but if you are studying late at night & have a problem, the manual provides a first port of call that can often get you moving again).
Recognition
- ACS is known and highly respected internationally: by employers and academics alike:
- Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
- ACS has been training people around the world since 1979
- Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
- Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
- A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.
Extra Books or Reference Materials
- The course provides you with everything that you need to complete it successfully.
- Assignments may ask you to look for extra information (eg. by contacting nurseries, visiting gardens or searching the internet), but our school's resources and tutors are always available as a back up. If you hit a "roadblock", we can quickly send you additional information or provide expert advice over the phone or email; to keep you moving in your studies.
- Some students choose to buy additional references, to take their learning beyond what is essential for the course. If a student wants to buy books, we operate an online bookshop offering ebooks written by staff at the school. Student discounts are available if you are studying with us. The range of e books available is being expanded rapidly, with at least one new ebook being written and published by our staff every month. See www.acsebook.com
