Homeless in Australia
I just had a question from a reader about wild foods, bush tucker, in Sydney. I'm from California, and while I hate to be provincial, I have no idea what is growing in Australia. How can I advise someone on how to find bush tucker on a continent that boasts marsupials and crocodiles as its natural icons?
Hey, that reminds me of a story about the first Europeans to make landfall in Australia. I've heard they died of starvation with food all around them. Don't let that happen to you. You have to know enough to recognize the bounty at your feet. That's what this whole blog is about. Learning to have some insight into how a home and comfort are achieved, with or without societal assistance.
Rely on experts. Learn native skills. Listen to locals. Realize, though, that when someone is an expert on one thing, it doesn't make him an expert on everything. Think critically.
posted by Mobile Homemaker @ 9:26 PM
7 Comments:
Thanks for your reply re Sydney Australia.I just felt like throwing a rotten egg at someone to make me feel better.Homelessness can be so complex,the last thing you need is complex idiotic advice.
Anyway I would rather be homeless in Sydney with Australia's famous social security safety net than in America, God forbid.
canaustralia04@yahoo.com
Yeah, the real stupid thing about the first settlers is that the aborigines were eating bush tucker all around them, and all they had to do was watch and copy.
For your OP on what Aboriginals eat. It's a question that has perplexed me also as whenever I have been bushwalking, I have never seen any Australian Natives that looked like it could be a fruit or palatable in any way. So, I stumbled across a book in Borders in Parramatta in the Cookbook section on Aboriginal Foods and it shows locations, photos, how they prepared it etc.. The unfortunate reality is that it would be easier to go dumpster diving than to try and survive as Aboriginal's once did, at least in Sydney, that is.
"bush Tucker" really does not grow in Sydney friends. The aboriginal people were nomadic and knew the environment moving with the seasons and a long heritage of understanding. Most Australian native flora is not edible and needs to be prepared, plus probably not enough to sustain you. A lot of it is poisonous or at least will have undesirable consequences and if you eat some of the introduced species, you will be in trouble. A lot of the fauna is of course protected and can also carry diseases...needless to say finding a kangaroo, on which there is good eating, in a city and preparing it hygienically, cooking and such is out of the question and also cruel and illegal!
You can learn about "bush tucker" and you can eat it, but you will have to go a lot farther out than Sydney if you want to be a "bush tucker man".
That is why we as Australians have a duty to grow indigenous plants so that we can learn and more importantly eat "bush tucker". We shouldn't lead the same ignorant and destructive lives that the colonial english settlers lived and more importantly we should embrace the original Australians' culture instead of dismissing it.
No joke mate you would be better of being a Guerilla Gardener
of fruit and vegetables or a 'Jonny Appleseed'than a bush tucker man. Some bush tucker need to be soaked to remove poisons etc.
It can take many years to become knowledgable at recognising edible plants, which is why aboriginals and white bush tucker men where schooled in it from such an early age.
You can't just learn this stuff in a weekend! but gardening you can, packets of seed even have simple instructions on the back.
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