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Political Parties >> Sustainability Party of Australia >> bunya nuts (photo)
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Message started by freediver on Jan 23rd, 2007 at 8:41am

Title: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Jan 23rd, 2007 at 8:41am
It's that time of year again - the bunya nuts are in season. If you live on the east coast of QLD or northern NSW then chances are there are some growing nearby you. Even in Brisbane they are easy to find. Check underneath the trees for large pine cones. The nuts in them can be roasted on an open fire or a BBQ, or boiled, peeled and used in cooking. Remove the green husks first.

The trees can be identified by the characteristic dome shape of the crown. This photo is of a younger one, so the crown is still a bit pointed:



A cone that has been broken open:



These nuts are a great 'whole food' and can be used as a cheap alternative to pine nuts. I've used them in pesto and also add them to stir fries and most other meals.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Jan 27th, 2007 at 8:21pm
http://www.ozpolitic.com/gardening/trees/bunya.html

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by Paul(Guest) on Feb 24th, 2007 at 12:51pm
Interesting to read about these trees. In relation to their survival in colder climates, we have a number of old trees growing at 350m alt. in the ranges behind Berry, south of Sydney .They have grown tall and strong, and don't appear to be as prone to lightning strike as other species! A large crop of nuts is produced albeit very irregularly, definitely not producing every year, maybe not even every third year.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Feb 25th, 2007 at 5:06pm
Good to hear Paul. Do they get eaten? Are they on private land?

If no to both, can I publish the location of them in the article?

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by peter h(Guest) on Apr 15th, 2007 at 10:03pm
just moved into new home that has a massive bunya tree in back yard in perfect shape and contn dont know anything about them .  please advise me about it as nextdoor want it down.  the tree looks fab and is bigger than anything in this area....... mac fields south of sydney.....thanks

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Apr 16th, 2007 at 8:46am
Do you know if they have ever dropped cones? There would be some evidence at the bottom of the tree if any were dropped this season.

Don't let them bully you into chopping any of your trees down. They help keep the area much cooler in summer and have heaps of other benefits. They don't have a leg to stand on legally.

Hope this helps:

http://www.ozpolitic.com/gardening/trees/bunya.html

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=wikipedia+bunya&meta=

Why do they want them gone? Is it just so they can get a better view?

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by peter hackett(Guest) on Apr 16th, 2007 at 9:13pm
No, the tree is approx. 1.5m from the fence. Their house is just on the other side. They mentioned they find the fruit to be dangerous when dropping and did not like having to pick up the prickly leaves. The tree also has a slight lean to their side. I just want to find out more about them so I can weigh up the legal ramifications. I would also like to know how I can estimate it's age.

Title: Trees
Post by sprintcyclist on Apr 16th, 2007 at 9:47pm
Hi Paul,
I am sure they can't make you chop it down. I love trees.
Worst thing about leaving my last house was leaving behind my permaculture garden there.
No maintenance, food ALL year around in it.

Will make another at the righ ttime/place.

take care

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Apr 17th, 2007 at 9:42am
Hi sprint, I would be interested to get some contributions from you for the gardening section. I'm trying to do the same thing.

Peter, the cones are dangerous and would damage a roof if they fell from a significant height. They dent corrugated iron no problem. Not sure if you would be liable, but your neighbours probably do have reasonable grounds to want it cut down. Maybe it is worth it just to stay on good terms with your neighbour. It is still a shame though.

Alternatively, you could offer to pick up the branches for them and toss them back over the fence, and fix any roof damage. I think the branches only fall during fruiting season and they stay in one piece.

Title: Bunya nut hazards
Post by sprintcyclist on Apr 17th, 2007 at 11:03am
Yes, they are dangerous when falling.
Better trees to plant also.  Lychee trees are magnificant.


Freediver - cool. I found the secret was "Make the mulch MUCH deeper."
6 inches is a minimum, one foot is much better.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Jan 7th, 2008 at 12:32pm
They are dropping again. Might be agood season with all this rain.

I have come up with some new techniques for shelling them. You can cook them in a microwave if you put them in some water (they explode without the extra water). I think they cook a lot quicker this way. I think the easiest technique is to put the uncooked nuts on a block of wood and chop them in half with a machete (or a meat clever, tomahawk etc). Obviously, do not attempt to hold the nut while doing this. I then use a deeply serrated steak knife to get the two halves out of the shell. Then use the raw nut in cooking.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/gardening/trees/bunya.html#cooking-shelling

Title: Bunyas in Orange, NSW
Post by freediver on Oct 21st, 2008 at 2:18pm
There are two trees growing in the city of Orange NSW. One is in Cook
Park and will be 100 odd years old. Another grows behind the Fire
station and is fully grown also.
Once, in 1974, I did find a fully formed cone, just one and just once.
Orange suffers frosts to minus 5 regularly and still the trees will
produce fruit, albeit, infrequently.
I have a nice specimen in a pot now about 5 years old and very statley it is.

Len Warren

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by tallowood on Oct 21st, 2008 at 2:32pm
We have them here and when I happen to walk past the trees I pick cones up and bring them home. I clean, roast and grind them, they are exelent when added to parsley and tomato salad.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Oct 21st, 2008 at 2:33pm
I've never tried grinding them. Do you roast them in the oven? How and when do you peel them?

Would you mind revealing the location of the trees, so I can add them to the list?

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by tallowood on Oct 21st, 2008 at 2:47pm

freediver wrote on Oct 21st, 2008 at 2:33pm:
I've never tried grinding them. Do you roast them in the oven? How and when do you peel them?

Would you mind revealing the location of the trees, so I can add them to the list?


I use oven after I clean them but a local koorie told me that they can be roasted in ashes before cleaned, never tried that myself though.

I'll take pictures when next time near them.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Oct 21st, 2008 at 2:51pm
So you peel the inner shell off before putting them in the oven?

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Oct 31st, 2008 at 11:24am
There are some bunya trees west of Taree, between Wingham and Comboyne.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Jan 21st, 2009 at 4:24pm
Bump.

The season is just finishing up for this year.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Jan 4th, 2010 at 7:45pm
via email:


Quote:
Hi,

Our bunya tree at the end of Blackheath Rd Corinda has had a bumper year with lots of cones if you or anyone is interested

cheers
Charlotte


I collected a dozen under one tree today, and left at least 3 behind. I think they are a bit smaller this year. Maybe because of all that dry weather we had before Christmas.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by sprintcyclist on Jan 5th, 2010 at 11:48pm

there's something very grounding and right about observing the seasonal crops and comparing this year to last years crop.

it's one of those natural facts.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by muso on Jan 6th, 2010 at 8:30am
I must get round to trying bunya nuts one day. I love pesto, and I usually substitute unsalted cashews for pine nuts.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Feb 3rd, 2010 at 9:40pm
another email:

There are two trees with seeds this year in Brookfield, QLD around 2284
Moggill rd near wybelenna street    Link:
<http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&q=kenmore+qld&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Kenmore+Queensland&gl=au&ei=-hBoS4uCG8qGkAWq37G9CQ&ved=0CAkQ8gEwAA&ll=-27.517528,152.923712&spn=0,359.996578&z=19&layer=c&cbll=-27.517614,152.923177&panoid=lfAqVSKMq2K0j43PFFZnag&cbp=12,283,,0,-18.68>

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by adolfo on Feb 20th, 2010 at 5:51pm
We do nuts pretty well here in Queensland. The macadamia nut is a native of this particular part of the world it (it will happily grow in the backyard) and was once called the Queensland Nut – the Hawaiians did a better job of processing and marketing it than we did, is all! Our state is also irredeemably associated with the peanut because a previous Premier of the state (the one with the Senatorial pumpkin-scone-making wife) was a peanut farmer – the particular style and quality of his regime ensuring that the peanut-farmer concept is a pejorative one. The peanuts are good though.

There is another sort of nut here that is not well known outside of the country. It is the bunya nut, and it is the product of the bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) which grows in that part of the Great Dividing Range known as the Bunya Mountains. The bunya nut was an important food for local aboriginals, and every third year (when it produced a bumper crop) tribes from within a 200 mile radius gathered to make the most of it. Tribal rivalries were suspended for the duration while up to 20,000 folk feasted on it and collected supplies to take home.

The nut is found in the female cones, which weigh up to 10 kg each, so there is an intrinsic danger inherent in being on the ground in a fruitful forest of bunya pines. Our family will be spending several days in the region in early July as my sister is getting married there. The brochure from the accommodation on the mountain lists includes a list of things under the heading “BEWARE” . It does not include snakes, strangely enough, but includes ticks, Gympie stinging trees, stinging nettles, and falling Bunya cones. I am not sure how one avoids falling Bunya cones. If one looks up to see if any look a bit ripe and loose, does that not mean that it splatters your nose, not the top of your head? Anyway, I digress.

The aboriginal people ate the nuts raw (when they were fresh), or roasted. They also pounded them into a sort of flour (the nuts are very starchy), and made ‘bread’. The first white settler to see them and remark on them was Andrew Petrie, a foreman of works in the penal days, in 1843. He wrote:

“The kernel of the bunya nut has a very fine aroma, and is certainly delicious eating . The blacks roast them, and we tried even to boil them, but the fruit lost its flavour in both cases. Besides it did not agree with my stomach. The blacks thrive on them.”






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Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by adolfo on Feb 20th, 2010 at 5:52pm
The Bunya nut is underused, methinks – probably because it is not easy to grow commercially, and it is difficult to get the seeds from the cones – and there is a dearth of recipes for it. I therefore give you a nice recipe using peanuts, from the Courier Mail of October 12, 1933. The recipe contributor won the ten shilling prize of the week for the best “Household Secret”.

Peanut Crispies.
Half a cup of raw peanuts, half cup sugar, two-thirds of a cup of coconut, 4 cups cornflakes, the whites of 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons butter. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, add the sugar slowly, a drop of vanilla and a pinch of salt. Melt the butter, add to the eggs and sugar. Mix the dry ingredients in, and bake in small portions in a moderate oven about 16 minutes. Allow to remain on the tin until cool

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by adolfo on Feb 20th, 2010 at 5:52pm
I have it from the locals big sister, that the trick in Bunya season in not to walk under the trees at all! However,because the nuts grow up against the trunk they are very noisy on the way down as these mighty cannon balls crash through the branches. This early warning system gives you several seconds to run away from the tree as fast as you can! The other advice I was given when you hear one dropping is to run up & hug the tree as the nut will fall away from the trunk - I think I'd rather run away like crazy

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by adolfo on Feb 20th, 2010 at 5:52pm
The Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the genus Araucaria, family Araucariaceae. It is native to south-east Queensland with two small disjunct populations in northern Queensland's World Heritage listed Wet Tropics, and many fine old specimens planted in New South Wales. It can grow up to 50 m.
The Bunya Pine is the last surviving species of the Section Bunya of the genus Araucaria. This section was diverse and widespread during the Mesozoic with some species having cone morphology similar to A. bidwillii, which appeared during the Jurassic. Fossils of Section Bunya are found in South America and Europe.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by adolfo on Feb 20th, 2010 at 5:53pm
bidwillii has a limited distribution within Australia in part because of the drying out of Australia with loss of rainforest and poor seed dispersal. The remnant sites at the Bunya Mountains, Jimna area, and Mount Lewis in Queensland have genetic diversity. The cones are large, soft-shelled and nutritious and fall intact to the ground beneath the tree before dehiscing. The possibility of past larger animal as vectors since the Jurassic, such as dinosaurs and large mammals should be considered, but is obviously unprovable for the bunya.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by adolfo on Feb 20th, 2010 at 5:54pm
Since the earliest of time and even before agriculture was used by the Greeks to have better food resources, `Nuts' were a stable food and nutritional source in the diet of manhood in the dark ages. During those times, nuts were plentiful, as there were much more forests as today, and well liked for their easy storage, which enabled people to keep them for times in which food was hard to find. (Winter, rainy season, etc)There is evidence that as far back as the second century B.C., the Romans distributed sugar almonds on special occasions such as marriages and births.Nuts have their place in all cultures and through almost all cuisine around the world. Nuts are liked by people of all ages for their subtle taste and high fat and carbohydrate content. It is this subtle taste that Chefs like when creating new dishes and variations.DESCRIPTION & SPECIESUnder the category nuts, we understand anything from a seed to a legume or tuber. The peanut, as an example, is a legume, the Brazil nut and macadamia nut are seeds and almonds are the seed of a fruit similar to a peach.
Botanically nuts are single seeded fruits with a hard or leathery shell that contain a edible kernel, which is enclosed in a soft inner skin.
Generally, all nut trees grow slowly but live long. Trees of walnut, chestnut or pecan continue to produce nuts, often more than hundred years after planting.
Nut trees of any species are found all over the world. Almonds for example are found in California, Spain, Morocco, Italy and even Australia, where as the walnut can be found anywhere from North America to the Andes and Persia to Australia. Asia also has a great variety of nuts. Ginkgo nuts in China, candle nuts in Indonesia and Malaysia, coconut in throughout southern Asia, cashew nuts in India and Malaysia and the Philippines, chestnuts in China and Japan, and the water chestnut which is found in China, Japan, Korea and the East Indies.





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Amrita.jpg (16 KB | 270 )

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on May 2nd, 2010 at 8:25am
Bunya trees in New Zealand:

at the visitors center of the LDS Temple in Temple View, west of Hamilton

at a park in New Plymouth?

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by useNature on Jan 30th, 2012 at 5:09pm
.. we have tons of Bunyo Nuts.. is there no one out there who collects them and maybe make a business out of it .. sell roasted nuts ..
.. I think I can't place a link, anyhow, I just added a picture and text to my facebook .. not sure if it works >>
facebook.com/useNature
.. cheers useNature ..

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by Veranice on May 13th, 2012 at 3:06pm
Any chance of maybe still getting some Bunya nuts this time of the year?
Just moved to the Gold Coast and for my delight found all your info about them and would looooove to get some if possible as they are very popular in South of Brazil where I come from and since living in Aussie land I could never find it anywhere. So there's a few good years to catch up on eating them lol.
Many thanks in advance. xxx

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on May 13th, 2012 at 10:08pm
It is too late now, unless someone has some frozen. If you want plants you could still get some. Maybe the ones up around Cairns might still be producing. The season in SEQ is very narrow - end of December and January.

Try contacting the people at Tropical Fruit World.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by Veranice on May 18th, 2012 at 12:25pm
Cheers mate!!! May have to wait till next season then hey. Checked Tropical fruit world but they don't have any. In case anyone knows if and where I can get any frozen ones please let me know, much appreciated.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by 0ktema on Sep 10th, 2013 at 7:16pm
Problems with exploding nuts ? ...

I generally pierce the shells with the tip of a sharp knife prior to roasting  ... it only takes the smallest of holes (in a fresh nut) to let the steam out and prevent explosions.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Sep 11th, 2013 at 8:55am
The explosions are the best bit, plus they help you open the nuts.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Jan 26th, 2018 at 4:26pm
They are dropping now - bad time to be hanging around under a bunya tree....

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by svhg on Apr 14th, 2018 at 2:10pm
fascinating

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Feb 6th, 2019 at 6:11am
It's bunya season again.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by .JaSin. on Feb 6th, 2019 at 9:44pm

freediver wrote on Jan 27th, 2007 at 8:21pm:
http://www.ozpolitic.com/gardening/trees/bunya.html


Strange, that I saw none in Bidwill when I lived near there back in the 70's.

Other than that - I'll try to find some.
Not too dissimilar in appearance to Wollemi Trees

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by freediver on Feb 8th, 2019 at 1:03pm
In Sydney? Not likely to be many there.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by .JaSin. on Feb 8th, 2019 at 8:41pm
Do they taste like that terrible 'Yank' beer known as XXXX?

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by .JaSin. on Mar 17th, 2019 at 10:05pm
Get ya Bunya Nuts! :D

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by JaSin. on Jun 1st, 2020 at 8:22am
Saw Bunya Nut festivities on TV last week.
Rolling the Bunya Nuts into holes is an Aboriginal traditional game. The Festival looked pretty neat, as did the nuts.

Title: Re: bunya nuts (photo)
Post by JaSin. on Aug 9th, 2020 at 12:40pm
Should Bunya Nuts be banned for spreading tick-tock like diseases around?

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