Australian Native Ingredients - A glossary of the different ingredients available. Discussing their provenance, cooking with them & the health benefits that these plants have.

Provenance and the Plant Just the name of this fabulous little fruit is evocative and excites the cook's imagination! What can it be like? Out of a wonderful field of candidates, the Wild Lime is doubtless among the elite in terms of flavour and visual beauty. It resembles a perfect miniature lime, and its flavour is closely aligned to the West Indian Lime. Unlike other citrus it has a very porous and very thin skin, but the juicy segmented flesh is just like other citrus - but on a much smaller scale. The skin and flesh both, are a yellowish,...

Provenance and the Plant Anisata is a coastal rainforest tree of subtropical eastern Australia. These days it's rare to find it in the wild, and the ones left in their natural environment must not be foraged. Fortunately for those of us who love to cook with this aromatic herb, there are significant plantations of Anisata in this region, particularly in the area around Lismore. Brush past an Anisata tree and an intriguing aniseed aroma will envelop you. The leaves are rich in the essential oils anethole and citral: anethole is an aromatic compound that gives the leaves their aniseed flavour, and...

Provenance and the the Plant We respect and thank our Aboriginal supply partners for imparting their incredible knowledge to us about this amazing plant. Many of the Indigenous fruits bear unlikely names given to them by European settlers who struggled to come to terms with their environment by calling the new (to them) fruits and trees by old familiar names. The Lemon Aspen is not an aspen at all, but probably reminded someone of the American aspens. It is actually an Australian rainforest tree that's closest relative is a similar species in India. The Lemon Aspen bears clusters of delicious...

Provenance and the Plant Our amazing Australian Finger Lime grows uninhibited up to 7 metres high. It's a denizen of the lowland subtropical rainforests of the coastal border region of Queensland and New South Wales. While there is scant knowledge of how Indigenous Australians used and husbanded this tree, we do know that the fruit was eaten and no doubt relished as it was also by the early settlers to this region. While the settlers would clear the rainforest for grazing land, they would often leave behind stands of Finger Limes, so valued were the fruits to eat and to make jams from. The fruit is...