All Tumbeela’s products are derived from Australian Native trees and shrubs: for your understanding and enjoyment we’d first like to give a little bit of background on each of those we use. Our approach at Tumbeela is very much...

“There are no rules, there are no limits, the choice is yours—the secret lies in using these herbs and berries in your favourite dishes”

Aniseed Myrtle (Syzygium Anisatum) Common name: aniseed myrtle

The aniseed scented and flavoured leaf is from a tall rainforest tree grown mainly in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales. It can be used in similar ways to its relative the lemon myrtle, its flavour is much more subtle but both are fairly intense. But it’s equally as versatile. It can be used fresh, dried or as a ground herb in sauces, custards, sorbets, desserts, soups and even as a tea. Like most other native herbs and spices it is advisable to add towards the end of cooking to
avoid dissipating the oils

Bush Tomato (Solanum Centrale) Common names: Bush Tomato, Desert Raisin

Many say that the fruits should be called desert raisins. Much of Australia’s bush tomato crop is harvested from the wild by skilled Indigenous women. The fruit is an important Indigenous Central Australian plant food and is seen as being a good source of carbo-hydrates and vitamin C. The fruit is usually 10-15mm in size .Fruit should be light to dark brown in colour and resemble a raisin. (Caution –all green fruits are toxic) Fruit are usually traded as dried whole, or dried ground. Dried fruits have intense earthy-tomato caramel flavours and can be used with stews, tarts, roasts, soup and marinades.

Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia Citriodora) Common names: Lemon Ironwood, Sweet Verbena Tree

Lemon Myrtle can grow up to 20 metres in sub tropical situations of eastern Australia but does well in cooler settings, but remains a much smaller shrub like plant. The leaves of the Lemon Myrtle when crushed or infused exhibit an exquisite flavour and aroma not unlike lemon, limes and lemon grass. Creative chefs are using it in stunning ways across their repertoires from entrees to deserts. Lemon Myrtle has a natural affinity with seafood, chicken dishes, pork, Thai curries. Also superb in cakes, ice cream, pasta and soups. Makes a freshing calming tea. The lemon myrtle is a winner.

Mountain Pepper (Tasmannia Lanceolata) Common names: Mountain Pepper

An ancient plant of Tasmania and high country of Victoria. The majority of leaves are harvested under license in the wild in Tasmania. The leaves are traded as fresh, whole dried or ground. While not a true pepper the leaves are hot, zesty and full of pepper like flavours. The heat dissipates with cooking leaving the soft flavours of the Mountain Pepper sitting under the flavour of your dish. Ideal for roasts, curries, tomato or cheese dishes, pate, and pasta- in fact any dish which calls for pepper.

Mountain Pepper Berries Common names: same

The Mountain Pepper tree is dioecious, which means that the male and female reproductive systems are on separate plants.
If you are growing for berries then you will need at least one of each. The berries are less than pea size, black/purple in colour with fleshy magenta colour inside. The berries also contain tiny but very hot, seeds. (heat due to a compound called polygodial). Berries can be dried and used in peppermills, or crushed with mortar and pestle and used widely as for the leaves. Excellent whole in pates, soups, or slightly crushed in sauces. Flavour much more exciting than the run of the mill peppers.

Muntries (Kunzea Pomifera) Common names: Munterberry, Munthries

Growing naturally around the Coorong area of South Australia but also in plantation settings in SA. The Muntry berries are about the size of a pea and green to red with a purplish tinge. The flavour is likened to that of apple cinnamon. Fruits are traded either fresh or frozen and can be used in a range of value added products from marmalades, to chutneys, preserves, cakes, and muffins or even added to salads. Traditionally local indigenous people pounded the berries into large cakes for trading. In some cases the Muntries were mixed with other fruits and seeds.

Quandong (Santalum Acuminatum) Common names: Native Peach

Quandongs are hemi parasitic relying on a host plant for water and soil nutrients. They are an important food plant for Indigenous groups. The skin colour is usually a rich cherry red with flesh being white or cream. The flavour should be a balance of tannins and acid with harder to define subtle flavours of peach, strawberry and rhubarb. Others describe it as more like apricots with a touch of cinnamon. Quandongs are usually sold in halves either frozen or dried after removal of the stone. Quandong fruit are used in pies, jams, sauces, chutneys, jellies, liqueurs and simply cooked up a little and served with ice cream. Quandongs are rich in vitamin C.

Riberries (Syzygium Luehmannii) Common names: Riberry, Clove, Lilly Pilly, Cherry Alder

Fruits are pear shape 6-12mm long and pink in colour when ripe. The berries have a lovely flavour suggesting an unripe granny smith apple with clove and cinnamon overtones. The berries are traded either fresh or frozen they are used in sweet and savoury dishes, the fresh berries tossed into a salad provide a lovely counterpoint of colour and flavour. The whole fruit can be blended into ice cream, chocolates, sauces, marmalades and glazes. Tumbeela’s Riberry Glaze is sensational with turkey, pork, duck, ‘roo, or venison.

Wattleseed (Acacia Victoriae) Common names: Elegant Wattle, Bramble Wattle, Gundabluey, Slender Wattle

The seeds of the Acacia victoriae have good nutritional characteristics. Commonly used by aboriginal people in Southern Australia as a food source with a high protein content. The seeds are 4-5mm long, mottled blackish or brown with a very hard outer coat. A nutty coffee like flavour is produced when the seeds are roasted and ground and this is the way it’s typically used. Wattleseed flour can be used in a range of baked goods such as bread, biscuits and muffins .It is delightful when blended with ice cream or Pavlovas. The Wattleseed may be used as a caffeine free coffee substitute. The seeds have low-glycaemic qualities.

In compiling the above notes we acknowledge with thanks the use of RIRDC publication Cultivation and Harvest Quality of Native Food Crops prepared by our friends Maarten Ryder, Yvonne Latham and Bruce Hawke. We recommend this informative report to you. Rural Industries Research and Development Corp. publication 08/019 2008.

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