Bunya Nut Harvest

It's that wonderful time of year when the Bunya pines produce their huge nuts. They seem like food from ancient times, even before human times--which they are. They are survivors from very, very long ago, when the dinosaurs roamed.
 
The trees are tall and from a distance look like pine trees. Up close the needles turn out to be prickly short leaves. In the pictures below you can see some of the litter from under Bunya trees, with the distinctive spiky leaves. 

And then there are the 'pine cones'.

These are large. Really large...

You really would not want to be under a Bunya pine tree when these fall.
They gradually soften over a week or two, and begin to open.

You only have to put your foot on one and step down, and they splay open all the way.

We found a ring of mature trees growing on a property nearby, an old homestead that is for sale, no one living there now. The Bunyas littered the ground, and several huge mango trees had dropped hundreds of pounds of mangos. We could not let them go to waste, could we?

So we collected a few shopping bags full and took them home. (We also gathered mangos, peeled them and froze them for smoothies in the year ahead)

Now begins the arduous task of shucking them, boiling them, and peeling the tough 'shell' off the actual nut.

Amanda had just the day before gone to an old friend for lessons in how to make Haloumi, and while there had lunch that her friend prepared. Among the dishes were garlic-friend Bunya nuts. She asked how to prepare them, since they are daunting to anyone who finds them without local knowledge of how to prepare them.

She learned that the cones need to be old enough (we found some!), the cones will fall apart by  themselves (yup), and the nuts can be stripped of their covering pretty easily if they are wet (right, ours were quite damp).





























Once 'shucked' the nuts have to be boiled for a few minutes to soften the very tough 'shell'. It is like leather, a rugged fibrous covering that will split after boiling. Then one has to remove the shell, which requires squeezing with pliers, opening a split, then grabbing the sides of the split with pliers and pulling apart. Not easy or for weak hands, but after a while a skill develops and it seems to go rather quickly.
Here are some the nuts prior to shelling. We had a bumper harvest!

Here are a few we peeled and froze.

 

The taste? Imagine big pine nuts. Like that. Rather bland and not so oily. They are often compared to chestnuts, with a bit of potato flavour added.
We have been told they make an excellent pesto, and we have heard of Bunya Curry, pancakes and lots more. We tried some of this batch chopped and garlic fried...they were great!

Bunya nuts were the basis of Aboriginal subsistence locally. The trees grow in a very limited part of Australia, from around South East Queensland, where we are, south to around Byron Bay. They are most abundant here in SE QLD. Revered by Aboriginal people, and with their knowledge that they produce large 'crops' about every three years, large celebrations were held to feast and have social interactions between tribes during the harvest time.
Since tribes had totem animals and were prevented from eating their totems, it was complicated to host other tribes on one's land. So when the Bunyas were producing, everyone could be assured of lots of highly nutritious food without  tampering with totems or over-hunting the local game animals.

Bunya harvest time, a time of abundance.