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Common name: Golden kelp

Latin botanical name: Ecklonia radiata

Family: Lessoniaceae

Native: Mostly in intertidal zones of Southern Hemisphere coastlines

Ecology:

Ecklonia demonstrates how the climate emergency can impact marine ecosystems. This species of kelp grows 1m tall and usually grows down to 25m in depth. In recent decades it has been thriving where Giant kelp forests are disappearing, due to rapid warming of the Australian east coast current. It’s most noticeable around Tasmania, where the warm nutrient poor waters displace the cooler nutrient rich southern currents. Each Giant kelp plant can grow up to 40m tall, being the largest marine algae in the world, with whole forests supplying food and habitat for countless fish and other marine species.

Water off the east coast of Tasmanian is a global heating hotspot. Over the last century, a temperature rise of 2C has caused 95% of Tasmania’s kelp forests to disappear. This has been exacerbated by the native sea urchin feeding on the weakened plants to create marine deserts. Sea urchin populations have exploded along the east coast, due to the depletion of their natural fish predators from over fishing and loss of their kelp forrest habitat.

Ecklonia dominates the ecological niche environment left behind by Giant kelp and joins a growing list of native species becoming invasive due to climate change. On a positive note, scientists from the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies are currently trialling selective breeding to produce a variety of giant kelp more suited to warmer waters. See here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2020/feb/24/the-dead-sea-tasmanias-underwater-forests-disappearing-in-our-lifetime

Food:

Ecklonia plays a role in my current research into parallel relationships between fermented foods, the human-microbiome and the ecosystems we depend on. In 2021 I developed a range of fermented food products for the exhibition Plant Treaty at Lismore Regional Gallery, under the now defunct business ECO GUT. Each product contained a specific plant ingredient – native or endemic to a specific ecology under threat. I made Pacific Kimchi with locally sourced ingredients, including green papaya and Ecklonia foraged from Northern Rivers beaches.

Foraging:

Ecklonia can be found washed up on beaches immediately after large swells from Southerly weather systems. Collect it before it starts to rot on the sand and wash it in clear seawater. Dry it on your clothesline in the sun, because it dries faster and ultraviolet light is thought to make nutrients in sundried plants more bioavailable when eaten. Foraging is an ancient practice gaining popularity around the world. Alternative food practices play a major role in my research and collaboration projects, through engagement with diverse cultural histories and community initiatives, such as migrant community gardens and First Nations agriculture & connections to place through local edible species. When undertaken with care and consideration, foraging is one of many food practices that highlight the unsustainability of modern extractivist style farming. Monoculture farming depletes soil microbial health and fertility, thereby depending on chemical fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. It diverts and drains water from land and contaminates aquifers, leading to the collapse of biodiversity.

Foraging comes with responsibility. Always remember, it’s not just about free food and getting into nature, foraging is in effect a form of agriculture and caretaking of land. It requires awareness of your surroundings and just a little effort each time to maintain and supporting biodiversity for stronger ecosystems we all depend on. Always check your state or local government websites for rules and restrictions applying to the collection of wild plants. In New South Wales you can forage up to 20 litres of fresh seaweed from beaches per day for personal use only. A permit is required for commercial use. See here for further info on recent projects between Germany and Australia https://andrewrewald.com

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The plants listed below form Plant Treaty, a temporary garden installation in the QUAD forecourt of Lismore Regional Gallery. It contains selected native edible species endemic to the surrounding region known as the Big Scrub. Most species are endangered, vulnerable or threatened by habitat loss from land clearing for farms and ongoing land miss-management. They sit alongside selected introduced and/or invasive edible and medicinal species classified as common weeds.

Small-leaf Tamarind (Diploglottis campbelli)

Native: Endangered

Strawberry Gum (Eucalyptus olida)

Native: Vulnerable

Pandanus Palm (Pandanus tectorius)

Native: Habitat vulnerable

Rough-shelled Bush-nut (Macadamia tettraphylla)

Native: Vulnerable

Red Lilly Pilly (Syzygium hodgkinsoniae)

Native: Endangered

Native Elderberry (Sambucus australasica)

Native: Stable

Yulli / Angular Sea Fig (Carpobrotus glaucescens)

Native: Habitat vulnerable

Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra)

Native: Stable - Habitat vulnerable

Davidson’s Plum (Davidsonia jerseyana)

Native: Endangered

Native Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon ambigiuus)

Native: Stable

Bunya Bunya (Araucaria bidwillii)

Native: Stable - Vulnerable

Giant Spear Lily (Doryanthes palmeri)

Native: Vulnerable

Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora)

Native: Stable

Broad leaf plantain (Plantago major)

Introduced: Invasive

American Elder (Sambucus canadensis)

Introduced: Potentially invasive

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Introduced: Invasive

Long leaf Pine (Pinus palustris)

Introduced: Invasive

The installation is surrounded by large sheets of repurposed hessian bags on mobile security fencing. The type of bags used to transport monoculture crops, stencilled with terms PLANT TREATY, CROP TRUST, SEED FUND, BIOSECURITY, GENE BANK. These terms were sourced from United Nations publications on world food systems, they represent commonly used rhetoric by Big Agriculture corporate food entities who monopolise global food systems while green-washing their environmental impact by donating to so called doomsday seed-banks for future food security.

The installation is supported by a public program of talks by traditional knowledge holders Arakwal Bundjalung woman Aunty Delta Kay, and Bundjalung man Clarence Slockee of Jiwah Cultural Landscaping and Design. The Plant Treaty project seeks to remind us that such terms and their meanings are already intrinsic to food­–plant–people relationships, inherent to traditional Indigenous land care practices in Australia and many other ancient and ongoing cultures around the world. Practices that build soil and harvest water to drought-poof the land and nurture biodiversity, to create and support healthy ecosystems for sustainable foodways.

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Aboriginal name: Bread fruit

Common name: Pandanas palm, Screw pine

Latin botanical name: Pandanus tectorius

Family: Pandananaceae

Native: Pacific Islands, Malaysia and Eastern Australia

Medicine:

No information is readily available about medicinal uses for the Pandanus palm.

Food, culture and ecology:

On Arakwal country at Broken Head, Byron Bay, Aunty Delta Kay hosts a regular cultural walk and talk tour, with stories about her ancestors and family told through local Indigenous food and medicine plants. The lands around Byron Bay are part of The Big Scrub, the traditional lands of the Bundjalung people, once the largest subtropical rainforest in Australia of which less than 1% remains today. Tectorius has been cultivated for thousands of years on coastal dunes and rocky headlands. For the coastal Arakwal Bundjalung people, Bread fruit was an important food source prior to their displacement from traditional lands and degradation of land and waterways. The Big Scrub was clear felled for prized timber like red cedar then burned for farming land. The sand dunes around Byron Bay where heavily mined for gold, which destroyed the coastal ecosystems.

Prior to the destruction of local Indigenous foodways, clear flowing creeks were an integral part of food preparation practices, like removing toxins from certain seeds and fruits. Aunty Delta speaks of the highly fragrant wood-like Bread fruit segments that produce an edible starch when processed. They were crushed then left in Dilly bags in running water for many days to extract toxins while softening the fibres. From my experience with fermentation processes, this can also be seen as a form of anaerobic fermentation, where microbes in the water would pre-digest the tough fibres and contribute to making the fruit more tender and edible. The symbiotic process of using microbes to pre-digest foods to make them bioavailable and digestible for humans is a practice as old as humanity.

The process would be hard to replicated today, due to widespread water contamination due to urbanisation and farming runoff and various other introduced water born pathogens. Also, certain microbes may no longer be present in the water, since many different bacteria species form microbial communities that created the beneficial niche environment for this kind of food preparation. Traditional food practices linked to interconnected ecosystems like The Big Scrub, are one way of understanding how food–plant–people relationships promote biodiversity for healthy and sustainable ecosystems, through everyday practices.

A similar process of pulping and washing seeds was widely used by Indigenous communities in North East New South Wales and Eastern Queensland with the large seeds of the Black Bean tree (Castanospermum austral). The seeds are also indigestible when raw. They were similarly pounded, placed in running water to extract toxins, then roasted and ground to flour to make a type of damper bread. 

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English name: American Elder

Latin botanical name: Sambucus canadenisis

Family: Adoxaceae

Native: North America

Ecology:

Canadensis is native to the mid-South East of North America. It prefers warm wet climates but can tolerate dryer soil. It thrives in the wet climate of the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, found growing wild near urban areas. So far, I have not found information supporting a classification as an invasive species in Australia, other than being monitored due to its ability to reproduce quickly from root suckers and fruit seeds spread by birds. American Elder is closely related to the European Black Elder (Sambucus negris), which is native to temperate Europe, Asia and North Africa.

Food and Medicine:

All parts of Canadensis including the fruit are toxic in large doses, however, like with all Sambucus fruit the poisonous alkaloid is neutralised once cooked. Given how closely related it is to Sambucus negris, both plants are generally used in the same ways. In the Australian Spring 2019 I foraged with friends the flower heads and fruit from plants growing wild in bushland around Mullumbimby, to make syrup from the flower nectar to experiment with fermented soda, beer and vinegar. 

The European variety (Holunder) has much more nectar and flavour, the flowers are used to make an aromatic syrup for cordial and fruit is used to make a traditional soup served cold or hot, or medicinal syrup commonly made at the end of summer when the fruit ripens. In Germany I harvested Holunder flowers and berries from Berlin’s vacant spaces and parks throughout the spring and summer of 2018 for an ethnobotany project on food–plant–people relationships. 

Not much information is available about traditional use for canadensis by First Nations North Americans, but I did read online The Iroquois people processed the inner bark for pain relief and toothache.

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English name: Burdock, Greater Burdock

German name: Klette

Latin botanical name: Arctium lappa

Family: Asteraceae

Native: Northern Eurasia

Ecology / social history:

Burdock is an invasive weed in temperate regions of Australia. In Germany, Klette is a threatened species due to natural habitat loss but is widely found in urban areas. Burdock is hardy and drought tolerant but reaches its full potential in moist well drained rich soils. The dead flower heads produce Burdocks iconic burs covered in tough hook-like pins. The burs often cause death of small wildlife getting caught in them and are the bane of farmers because they tangle animal hair and wool.

In the 1940’s, Swiss engineer George De Mestrel invented the hook and loop fasterner – Velco, after he and his dog became entangled in burs and investigating why they stuck so tenaciously. In Turkish Anitolia, Burdock burs are represented in the kilim rug motif of the evil eye, used to ward off evil.

Food:

Burdock is an ancient food source, used for thousands of years across Europe and Asia. Gobo in Japanese cuisine is probably the most well-known use for Burdock as a food. The Burdock taproot of the Japanese hybrid is cultivated up to 70cm long and is sold raw, braised or pickled. It’s traditional use in Germanic cultures is similar, however not cultivated like in Japan, as its not a popular modern vegetable but is popular with wild food foragers and herbalists.

In 2018 I produced a 6-month public engagement project in Berlin, cooking seasonal foraged plants for audiences to sample while hearing stories about local endangered and invasive edible species from a professional forager and botanist. For Beyond the Pleasure Garden I cooked young Burdock petioles in Birch syrup (see here) https://andrewrewald.com/gallery/beyond-the-pleasure-garden-summer-prism/

Medicine:

Burdocks nutritional value is limited to serval minerals and a high fibre content. As an herbal medicine in Europe the mucilaginous Burdock root is traditional used for a decoction, as a cleanser of the digestive system and used to clear conditions like boils and other skin complaints. The dry powder is used in traditional Asian medicine and in cosmetic products.

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English name: Dandelion

German name: Löwenzahn

Latin botanical name: Taraxacum officinale

Family: Asteraceae (the daisy family)

Ecology / social history:

Native to Eurasia, Dandelion is considered the first European crop grown and foraged as food and medicine for thousands of years. The name Dandelion derives from French dent-de-lion meaning lions-tooth in reference to the serrated shape of its leaf. In Australia it grows in almost all environments and is mostly overlooked as a garden weed. Dandelion features in a particular selection of healing herbs commonly featured at the feet of religious figures in early-mid 15th Century European art. Read more in an earlier post here.

Medicine:

Dandelion is an ancient medicine plant and today remains a vauable and easily sourced herbal remedy. The sap is thought to aid digestion and inflammation, is high in iron, calcium, vitamin A, B6, E and K, thiamine and antioxidants, plus beta – and alpha carotene, according to The Weed Forager’s Handbook, one of my go-to books for edible weed information.

Food:

All parts of this plant are edible and full of nutrition and medicinal qualities. The roots can be roasted and ground to make a coffee-like flavoured tea, young leaves and flowers are great in a salad and mature leaves can be cooked as a vegetable green. Flowers are also turned into wine or syrup. For me, Dandelion leaves are most suited as an ingredient of Horta, a traditional rural Mediterranean dish called Horta. A collection of seasonal foraged greens (see photo) boiled together until tender and served with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. The leftover bittersweet juices are prized by elderly people as a restorative broth. 

Dandelion has featured often in my work and much is written in the links below. In spring 2018 I harvested 1.5 kilos of flowers to produce a Dandelion syrup for a project in Berlin – Beyond the Pleasure Garden. 

And here 

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Indigenous names: Boyne Boyne, Bunya Bunya

English name: Bunya pine

Latin botanical name: Aracauria bidwillii

Family: Araucariaceae

Threatened habitat: Bunya Mountains

Ecology:

The Bunya tree is native to Boyne Biar (Bunya Mountains) in South East Queensland and found to a lesser extent in Northern New South Wales and Atherton tablelands of North Queensland. Trees grow 45 - 50m high and can live 500 - 600 years old. Since 2019, old growth Bunya Bunya and their close relative the Hoop pine have been found dying in Boyne Biar, with an exotic soil-borne fungal-like organism called phytophthora being responsible. The pathogen is not a fungus, but a type of water mould from a group of organisms called oomycetes, which behaves just like fungus in soil. It is thought that feral pigs disrupt the soil ecosystem around tree roots and alongside more frequent droughts this weakens the trees immune system, leaving them susceptible to pathogen infection causing a slow death.

Food:

Between 50 - 100 highly nutritious nuts/kernel are found in the football size pine cones can weigh up to 18 kg. Kernels are a very high source of starch and fats, and can be boiled or roasted to split the tough husk to extract the soft cooked flesh tasting similar to a chestnut Roasted kernels take on a floury consistency, a good baking product for cakes and breads when ground to powdery meal, while boiled kernels are starchy like boiled potato. Newly germinated seeds produce a pronounced long tuber, this allows the immature plant to go dormant and wait for favourable growing conditions. Historically, Aboriginal women stored these tubers under the silt of running streams in a process of anaerobic fermentation, preserving the tubers as a future food source.

During the last bumper crop in 2019 I harvested fallen bunya cones from a park in Mullumbimby, to ferment and pickle the cooked kernels. At the same time, I cultivated several kernels, which are now infant trees exhibited in Plant Treaty, a temporary garden installation at the QUAD at Lismore Regional Gallery.

Medicine:

A tea made from fresh seed husks is consumed as a soothing herbal medicine. Both the Bunya seed and wood of the Bunya tree are thought to have antibacterial and antifungal qualities. I am yet to learn of any Aboriginal medicinal uses for Bunya Bunya. 

Cultural significance:

Since it was first created in 2009 The Bunya Peoples’ Aboriginal Corporation (BPAC) rangers work across the Boyne Biar landscape, to manage the health of country, with weed management and cultural burning to protect cultural sites and rehabilitate degraded and threatened ecosystems.

Custodial groups associated with BPAC identify as Wakka Wakka, Western Wakka Wakka (known as Jarowair ‘the givers’ by visiting groups), Barrungam, and Wulli Wulli-Djakunde/Auburn Hawkwood peoples.

Boyne Biar is the traditional heart of the Wakka Wakka nation, located near an important song-line junction. Prior to colonial government displacement of local aboriginal peoples, followed by the influx of colonial settlers and widespread deforestation, custodial groups hosted the culturally important Bunya Festival every three years to coincide with the Bunya trees triennial bumper crop of pine cones. Surrounding communities were invited to gather from as far south as the Clarence River in Northern New South Wales, as far north as the Maranoa River in Wide Bay. Over 3 months the groups feasted on seeds and conducted important business, including trade, marriage, law and culture exchange. The last great Bunya Gathering is thought to be 1902, however, local Aboriginal people maintain close cultural ties with the mountains and in recent years the Bunya Festivals are again becoming a popular cultural event.

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Common name: Broad Leaf Plantain, White Man’s Foot

Latin botanical name: Plantago major

Family: Plantaginaceae

Native: Eurasia

Ecology / social history:

With around 200 species commonly known as Plantago found around the world, the Eurasian varieties Plantago Major and Plantago lanceolata (narrow leaf plantain) are most well-known as cosmopolitan weeds. Either deliberately carried as seed crop or accidental agriculture weed, Plantago Major is one of many plants linked to European migration around the world. It has a high tolerance for growing in pathways and disturbed soil and in North America it was referred to by First Nations people as White man’s foot, observing the plant grew wherever early settlers went.

Broad leaf plantain features in a particular selection of healing herbs commonly featured at the feet of religious figures in early-mid 15th Century European art. This inclusion was highly symbolic and significant, because all art of this time was controlled by the church and religious paintings were instructional due to high illiteracy. At the time, these herbs were held in esteem as food and medicine plants, but are now commonly dismissed as garden or agricultural weeds around the world.

It is possible this specific representation of herbs and religion is a legacy of Hildegard Von Bingen (1098–1179). A 12th Century abbess, visionary, mystic, healer, linguist, poet, artist, musician, playwrite, biographer, theologian, preacher, and spiritual councillor, her research and work across the arts, medicine and academia influenced Germanic and wider European culture and thought with a legacy that continues today. Hidegard traversed ideas and practices considered heretical by associating herbalist plant practices with animals and minerals. She is referred to as a ground-breaking feminist whose work was radical at a time when men ruled all parts of people’s lives through the church and when healing was considered gods will.

Food:

Broad leaf plantain and Narrow leaf Plantain leaves and seeds are edible. The young inner leaves are a good salad green, while mature leaves are still good for cooking, except older ones are extremely fibrous. Foraged around the world as a wild edible green, Plantain is a good ingredient for Horta, a highly nutritious traditional Mediterranean dish from seasonally foraged wild leaves. The leaves (see a selection above) are boiled in water and finished with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, served in the broth with bread, potato or rice. The seeds of both varieties are highly mucilaginous, meaning they are extremely sticky when wet. Broad leaf seeds are extremely small but numerous and easy to collect when dry and can be used in many ways, including bread, biscuits https://andrewrewald.com/gallery/alchemy-garden-foragers-walk-talk/ or toasted and added to salad.

Medicine:

Horta is favoured by elderly people in Mediterranean cultures as an anti-inflammatory, associated with the minerals and vitamins found in wild greens. With the left-over bitter sweet broth of Horta is prized as a soothing restorative tonic. Plantain leaf is an ancient medicine plant used in herbal poultice for wounds, with the large tougher fibrous leaves used to wrap wounds. Different varieties including Narrow leaf plantain produces Psyllium husk used as a mucilage in cooking and for dietary fibre drinks.

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Aboriginal name: Karlampi juttu juttu (Waramungu), Munyaroo (name is synonymous with South Australia, language unknown)

English name: Purslane, Pig Weed

German name: Portulak

Latin botanical name: Portulaca oleracea

Family: Portulacaeae

Ecology:

Portulaca oleracea is generally dismissed as a garden weed. It is a cosmopolitan synanthropic species found globally by a multitude of names and micro-species, its place of origin lost in time. This points to ancient movement and migrations, of human – plant relationships, the practices of seed carrying, trade and consumption of important food and medicine plants. In Australia, purslane thrives on flood plains, with each plant producing thousands of seeds that lay dormant to germinate with the first rain, often out of season. In photos above, my mother and I forage in Central Queensland for Purslane after some rain during a drought in 2019.

Medicine:

Purslane is the highest known plant source of Omega 3 fatty acids (usually found in fish), and is rich in potassium, calcium and magnesium. Its leaf, stem, root and seed are still used today in different cultures. The mucilaginous juices soothe digestion, aided by its anti-inflammatory and analgesic qualities and can also be used as a salve for skin irritations or sun burn. The leftover bittersweet juices of the traditional rural Mediterranean dish called Horta are prized by elderly people as a restorative broth.

Food:

I have foraged and cultivated Purslane in numerous places around the world, learning different uses and recipes for all parts of this plant. The tiny seed, if you can collect them, are highly nutritious and tasty. They can be toasted and ground with salt as seasoning, added to salads or baked in bread. The fresh leaves are good raw in salad or chopped into yoghurt as a cooling palate cleanser between strong flavoured dishes. I forage and cook Purslane every summer when it is most abundant, ever since a Greek friend told me about her aunties who migrated Melbourne in the 1960′s and scattered seed of edible weeds in parks and green spaces for a regular supply of seasonal wild greens to make Horta (see summer greens in photo). A collection of foraged greens are boiled together until tender and served in the broth, with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. 

Aboriginal culture:

For several years I did research on wild edible plants in Albury Wadonga, often meeting with local Wiradjuri woman and Charles Sturt University academic Leonie Mckintosh, to talk about links with local traditional Aboriginal foodways and Murray River ecosystems. Having already learned that Purslane was widely cultivated by Aboriginal communities across the continent for its seeds, Leonie mentioned it was an ingredient for making small flat breads cooked in clay ovens that could be threaded on string as a nutritious mobile snack food. On a farm in northern Victoria there is an Aboriginal archaeological site of hundreds of clay dome ovens that look like termite mounds. Women from surrounding communities met there annually at this baking ground to trade grains and bake cup shaped flat bread over small clay balls heated in the ovens. Facing ongoing adversity and dispossession from traditional lands, women continued to gather at the baking grounds until 1956. Ended by the degradation and mismanagement of land by European farming practices that depleted traditional food plant resources and ultimately made access to impossible.

At Tennant Creek in Warumungu country, Purslane is called Karlampi juttu juttu. In 2020 I created an edible and medicinal garden Alchemy Garden,https://www.tumblr.com/blog/theconceptualcookbook  of native and introduced plants at the National Art School for NIRIN, 2020, Biennale of Sydney. This was a socially engaged project investigating concepts around sustainable urban food practices with a local community group in Darlinghurst, Sydney. While planting the garden, I met other NIRIN artists from the Tennant Creek Brio, who kindly offered to speak with Warumungu elders about a few plants they recognised in the garden.

See their reply below which was printed at the end of my essay On the Movement of Plantsin the NIRIN NGAAY – a printed artwork by Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter, a publication by the Biennale of Sydney Ltd.

Bush Medicine

By Jimmy Frank and Joseph Williams

In consultation with Micheal Jones, Norman Frank, Danny Frank, and Jerry Kelly

Pig Weed Karlampi juttu juttu We can eat it, it’s a good one, it makes your mouth moist jala palpunjal. You can find a big mob along the track Yuwaji as long as it’s not too dry Manu marntamarnta, mainly rain season. If you walk a long way you can have that and keep going, you don’t get thirsty Warrinji.  We even have it in town gardens and people chew it, it cools you and its soft to stand on. When you look at it some people get frightened ingngal munta they think its poison Wangangu but its right. It just about grows anywhere. Mostly where water lays Kalupijutjutu– on the moist ground it grows anywhere.

At the moment there’s nothing – we don’t see it because we have a big drought, no rain ngapa Kupurtu. But when the big rain comes Ngapa kumppu they’ll be all over the place, they grow amongst the spinifex too, Muna, any country.  That’s the freaky thing it also grows in the desert. Even the kangaroos who live in the desert and travel out a long way wati, they chew on it too when they’re far from water ngapa, because it keeps them moist.

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Aboriginal name: Yulli (Bundjalung country)

English name: Angular Sea Fig, Pigface

Latin botanical name: Carpobrotus glaucescens

Family: Aizoaceae

Aboriginal culture: 

On Arakwal Bundjalung country at Broken Head in Byron Bay, Aunty Delta Kay hosts an Indigenous culture walk and talk about local native plants. The Big Scrub, once the largest subtropical rainforest in Australia with less than 1% remaining today, is the traditional country of the Bundjalung people and the background for stories about her Arakwal ancestors, community and family through local food and medicine plants like Yulli. I often meet with Aunty Delta to swap plant stories about different native and introduced plants and their cultural and environmental value. 

Ecology:

Yulli is endemic to Eastern Australia (often confused with the African garden variety Pig face), along the coastal fringe below Mackay into New South Wales and Victoria and the East coast Islands. Yulli plays a major role in stabilising dune ecosystems, which are increasingly under pressure from recreational beach use, severe weather erosion and widespread development. In recent years the Northern Rivers coastline has suffered regular erosion. In places where Yulli grows freely and undisturbed where the beach meets sand dunes, erosion is mitigated by Yulli growing amongst coastal spinefix (Sinifex sericeus) creating a deep-rooted matt of vegetation which binds the dunes together. You often see large clumps of Yulli vegetation washed onto beaches after a storm, which can take root again. As a forager I make it a rule to give back to any ecosystem I take from, by replanting dislodged or new pieces of stem in nearby dunes or tide lines that look vulnerable to king tide and storm surge. Always remember when foraging, it’s not just about free food and getting into nature, foraging is in effect a form of agriculture and caretaking of land. It requires awareness of your surroundings and just a little effort each time to maintain and supporting biodiversity for stronger ecosystems we all depend on.

Food:

For coastal aboriginal people, Yulli has always been a reliable wild food source. Due to its wide-spread growth along the east coast and ability to grow in almost any coastal conditions, the fruit can be harvested nearly all year round, due to micro climates in different coastal ecosystems causing fruit to ripen at different times. I forage often for Yulli fruit, it tastes like salty strawberry in summer and salty kiwi fruit in winter and it also pickles well. To eat straight from the plant, just pick the fruit and bite the bottom stem off, squeeze from the top and suck out the succulent inner flesh. It’s like a small slimy and salty strawberry, an acquired taste and texture for some people. The leaves can be harvested all year round and because of their saltiness, they’re excellent when lightly sautéed or roasted to pair with fish. I also use leaves finely chopped into yoghurt as a palette cleanser during a meal or mixed whole into a salad.

Medicine:

Yulli is a succulent plant with very mucilaginous leaves. Aunty Delta says to crush the leaves and rub the soothing juices onto sunburn, or rub onto insect bites. I have also read online that Yulli is been used for jellyfish stings.

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Alchemy Garden is a site specific community garden of edible and medicinal native and non-native plants at the National Art School (NAS), Darlinghurst, created for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN, 2020. It is tended by local community group the Darlo Darlings who maintain it as an urban food garden and learning hub for environmental awareness for deeper ecological engagement. 

Form follows function with this self-watering garden based on ancient wicking bed technology. The angle of the site informs the garden design and shape, determining which plants can grow where and moisture flow creates the resulting soil micro-climates. Since September 2019, the Darlo’s and I have nurtured the soil, turning a commercial landscaping mixture into fertile bioactive soil to support a broad spectrum of drought tolerant natives and temperate non-native flora. We inoculated it with Bokashi compost from fermented domestic food waste, and mycelium rich native leaf compost collected from the grounds of the Powerhouse Museum’s Castle Hill warehouse. The garden is covered with a layer of Cypress Pine mulch from Randwick Community Nursery where many of the plants were bought (cypress mulch is a byproduct of native deforestation and this topic will be part of the conversation on sustainable practices). 

Water is our most precious resource, but also a major problem in Australia with the inevitable floods that follow drought. The Alchemy Garden design addresses this with inbuilt water saving as well as water drainage practices. Wastewater is collected from the NAS cafe coffee machine, along with clay slurry water from the school’s Ceramic department and enters a subterranean reservoir via the yellow charcoal filter. Water is also filtered into a galvanised iron water tank which supplies the wick-bed planter boxes and is used for surface watering of seedlings until their roots reach the underground water. Bacteria and minerals filtered from the waste water makes the charcoal bioactive. On a monthly rotation this charcoal  is dug into the garden as fertiliser and the filter is replenished with new charcoal. The Charcoal is Biochar, a product that replicates ancient waste management to create fertiliser through a process of low temperature burning with minimal access to oxygen. Such practices have been used by indigenous cultures around the world for thousands of years.  

Alchemy Garden was to be the platform for a series of workshop events throughout the Biennale. For each event I partnered with specialists in their own field to highlight sustainable food production practices. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 restrictions these events will be presented online and accessible through the Biennale website. 

The workshops will consider sustainable food growing practices that offer ways to see and understand our past and future impact on global ecological systems. This project is significantly informed by Indigenous Australian agricultural and cultural practices that created fertile anthropogenic soils across the continent through processes such as fire stick farming. The Alchemy Garden workshops will demonstrate alternative agriculture practices in an urban community context, highlighting everyday processes that contribute to mitigation of the climate crisis.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates.

Andrew Rewald 

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EN: Black Elder DE: Hollunder LA: Sambucus nigra Autochthon: Native to temperate regions of Europe, Asia and North Africa

Images: Elder flowers and syrup in June, harvesting fruit with Melissa and Tom from CommonsLab Project Space, and an audience tasting Elderberry soup for Beyond the Pleasure Garden events in August.

Medicine: Syrup from juice of Sambuca fruit is a popular commercial product used as a tonic against cold and flu. The flower and fruit have been used in traditional folk medicine to treat almost any ailment for thousands of years in regions of Europe, North Africa and Asia. The fruit is a good source of anthocyanins, calcium, iron and contains Vitamins A and C and B6, sterols and essential oils, with tannins and viburnic acid which have a positive effect on diarrhea, nasal congestion and respiration. The medicinal value in the fruit comes from its antioxidant content, being one of the highest known in fruit, which the human body extracts from plant matter and uses to deal with harmful free radicals. Nearly everyone I spoke to in Berlin about elder – the community gardeners, a botanist, foragers and herbalists, audience members attending events I presented throughout summer and autumn of 2018, all praise the plant, and a plethora of literature online only supports and expands on any suggestion about the medicinal and ongoing cultural value of this plant. In contrast, there are negative claims online that no evidence exists for its medicinal value, but in my opinion thousands of years of ongoing use negate such a generalised type of negativity toward traditional medicines from wild plants.

Food: The unmistakably mild yet intoxicating smell of elderflower on a warm breeze says summer has arrived, and the shiny black berry clusters in August contrast against the mature green forest margins to usher in the stillness of high summer. Both flower and berry were held in high esteem by the ancient Germanic tribal cultures as food and medicine, continuing to modern popular culture and folklore. Austrians will tell you to make fritters by dipping the full flower crown with stem attached into a wet batter to fry in oil, served with a dusting of sugar powder and cinnamon. Germans will tell you to make syrup from the flowers by boiling the nectar rich crowns in water, lemon and sugar. I used a soaking method on five kilograms of flowers gathered from nearby parks, without boiling I strained it after 2 hours to avoid going sour in the unusually hot weather of June 2018 which lead to a record-breaking heatwave and a protracted drought for Northern Europe. This simple method I found online is supposedly a traditional recipe to capture the delicate taste and sweetness of flower nectar, and in lieu of preservatives like sugar it needs to be consumed within days. Since I needed to prepare the syrup in advance for upcoming events I used a local honey from Linden tree flowers known for its mildness as a sweetener and preservative used throughout Europe long before sugar was available.

To consume the Elder berries, you need cook them to neutralise a poisonous alkaloid, never eat them raw. Strain the seed and skin and add sugar or honey to make a ready to use cordial or preserve it appropriately in bottles for a winter medicine. Alternatively, make an unsweetened syrup as a summer soup served warm or chilled. A savoury version with wheat flour & wild herb dumplings or a sweetened version with meringue floaters are traditional German dishes. In the first weekend of summer during Beyond the Pleasure Garden events at Spreepark, I served the Elderflower nectar-syrup with an ice-tea made from local meadow plants to the audiences. In one event an elderly man seemed uninterested throughout the foraging and tasting tour and became animated and talkative when he tasted the syrup, recounting childhood summers in the 1950’s when collecting flowers, then berries in the following months from the many overgrown vacant urban spaces in Berlin after WW2. His mother would make a soup by boiling and straining the berries, lightly thickened with potato starch and finished with a squeeze of lemon. For me, this simple but story demonstrated the evocative power of sense memory and in this case how taste triggered distant memories of his childhood rituals that link the seasonality of food to a locale, a point in time of social history. For the final summer events in August I made this soup for audiences while recounting his story in context with sense memory, alongside historical, religious and mythological anecdotes on the Hollunder tree, its flower and fruit.

Mythology/religion: In Europe, Asian and North Africa varieties of Sambuca are known to have been used as a ward against evil spirits. In particular, it is connected to the Norse goddess Freya as the sacred Hallunder tree in Northern Europe. Freya was a major deity of the Norse Germanic tribes in relation to seasonal change and abundance in pre-Christian mythology. Freya was responsible for flowering trees and the following fruit and berries of the forest, so integral to the diet of early Germans. Folk stories persist about good or bad luck coming from which side of a house your Elder tree grows and ill omen from cutting one down. The hollow limbs of the Elder tree are where Freya and other forest spirits are said to have resided. And flutes were traditionally made from smaller stems because the easily removed soft inner pith produced a hollow pipe.

‘Friday’ is named after Freya and May Day can be viewed as a reductive post-Christian form of celebrating her original power and cultural significance. Freya is also the root of Frau, the title for married or widowed women in German language. Christianity contended with an unshakable popular belief in Norse Germanic deities like Freya by appropriation and the charge of idolatry by associating goddesses to the domestic domain, linking Freya to Frau Holle, another Germanic goddess responsible for snow as well as cookery. These female deities (and others) are the basis of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of Mother Hulda on the power and perils of womanhood through a patriarchal lens of domesticity.

[theconceptualcookbook]

EN: Horsetail, Snakegrass, Scouring grass DE: Equestium LA: Equestium pratense (Meadow horsetail) Autochthon: Varieties native to non-tropical northern hemisphere and South America

Edible: This plant is almost completely odourless and flavourless and very fibrous. It’s possible the young shoots of particular varieties may be used as a vegetable when cooked until tender (this is just a hunch and yet to be tried).

Medicine: Equestium has been used as traditional medicine for centuries in many cultures. Today, Equestium arvense L. is the variety commonly used as herbal tea and is widely used for its diuretic effects, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial qualities and for urinary and kidney conditions. Fresh foliage is also used in poultice for wounds, with dried foliage (loose tea) added to hot baths to treat and help heal skin conditions. Equestium is high in flavonoids and alkaloids, but is also known to produce the toxic alkaloid Palustrin in small quantities which will kill animals that graze on the plant too much. Excessive consumption can be detrimental to human health, with recommended dosage no more than 2-3 times per week.

The common Meadow horsetail grows around Berlin and it thrives alongside Yarrow and Goldenrod around the fibreglass dinosaur enclosure at Spreepark, where I served tea  for audiences for Beyond the Pleasure Garden, using Equestium arvensa L., Goldenrod and Yarrow flavoured with a different sweet syrup extracted from fruits grow in the park. In a photo above, head gardener and botanist of Prinzessinnengärten – Matheus Wilkens shares his knowledge about Equestium with an audience during an event at Spreepark. This plant is a living fossil with varieties native to temperate environments throughout the world except Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Some varieties grow up to 1 meter high and look identical to the extinct Giant Equestium that grew to 30m high with 1m diameter during the Carboniferous Period (between 359.2 – 299 million years ago), such as Equestium telmateia. This was a warm earth period when vast amounts of carbon dioxide was captured and stored in swampy forests, being dominant ecology of the epoch, to form the fossilised coal bearing strata we mine and burn as fossil fuel today. By rapidly re-releasing this stored carbon dioxide we significantly contribute to current climate change scenarios and the devastating potential for a Hothouse Earth scenario. So much carbon dioxide was removed from the atmosphere by these vast swamp forests during the Carboniferous period that oxygen peaked around 35% compared to 21% today, leading to a long period of overall global cooling.

Unlike hyperacumulators such as the previously discussed Fallopia japonica (Japanese Knotweed) that thrive in mineral rich soils storing poltants and minerals in its foliage, Equestium selectively accumulates minerals. Being very high in silica it is also known to accumulate gold, but not quantities to extract using current Phytomining technology. During my research in Germany I often heard the story that Equestium extracts aluminium from the human body when consumed as herbal tea, a process that points to a type of bio-mining, if only in minute quantities. Current medical research suggests a link between aluminum to conditions like alzheimer's disease, which calls into question the use of aluminium in products used daily like deodorants and domestic aluminium cooking pots. 

While learning about Equestium I discovered a medicinal herbal tea recipe with Equestium, Goldenrod and Yarrow as active ingredients. When buying the dry products from an herbalist in Berlin I asked for advice about medicinal brews, only to be informed it is illegal for her to mix or give advice about traditional medicine from plants. In recent years a law was passed in Germany stating herbal mixes can only be made and sold by licensed pharmacists and to date only 4 pharmacists in Berlin do so. That Equestium and many other plants are powerful medicines is indisputable, this is reinforced by rhetoric from pharmaceutical corporations claiming herbal medicines are dangerous when mixed with pharmaceuticals. There’s no doubt this is true due to the natural medicinal quality of plants, but the opposite can also be said that synthetic pharmaceutical medications are dangerous to human health when mixed with traditional plant based medicine. Equestium is an example of the many plants that represent co-species evolution, in the form of ancient plant–people relationships developed and applied by cultural knowledge over many thousands of years, as food and medicine practices. 

photos by Frank Sperling and Andrew Rewald

[theconceptualcookbook]

Beyond the Pleasure Garden Berlin, Germany, 2018

EN: Goldenrod DE: Kanadische Goldrute LA: Solidago canadensis

Neophyte: several varieties of Solidago entered Europe via the Columbian Exchange since the 16th Century. Canadensis (Canadian Goldenrod) was introduced as a garden variety in the 19th century and now grows throughout europe and is classified as an invasive species. Not to be confused with the medicinally important Common Goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) which is native to central Europe and the mountains of subtropical Europe and Asia.

Edible: young leaves can be used as salad vegetable and seeds are known to have been used by native north Americans.  

Medicine: all parts of canadensis have been used extensively by north eastern and central North American first nation peoples because of its antibacterial qualities and was brewed as a kidney tonic. Leaves were chewed for sore throat and toothache. Today, leave and stem are commonly used for herbal tea.

Solidago is a ruderal species. In Germany, canadensis is found growing on roadsides and disturbed soil, meadows and urban spaces competing with native species to generally colonise and dominate wherever it is found. In spite of this it remains a popular garden plant throughout Europe. Other uses include using the flowers to make a yellow dye used by American natives. I attempted to make a sweet pigmented syrup but found the end product too bitter.

For Beyond the Pleasure Garden events I served tea made from Goldenrod, Yarrow and Horsetail in a meadow environment where these plants grew naturally together. I discovered online a liver cleansing herbal tea blend recipe with these three as the medicinal ingredients. While learning about Goldenrod I discovered a medicinal herbal tea recipe with Equestium, Goldenrod and Yarrow as active ingredients. When buying the dry products from an herbalist in Berlin I asked for advice about medicinal brews, only to be informed it is illegal for her to mix or give advice about traditional medicine from plants. In recent years a law was passed in Germany stating herbal mixes can only be made and sold by licensed pharmacists and to date only 4 pharmacists in Berlin do so. That Goldenrod and many other plants are powerful medicines is indisputable, this is reinforced by rhetoric from pharmaceutical corporations claiming herbal medicines are dangerous when mixed with pharmaceuticals. There’s no doubt this is true due to the natural medicinal quality of plants, but the opposite can also be said that synthetic pharmaceutical medications are dangerous to human health when mixed with traditional plant based medicine. Goldenrod is an example of the many plants that represent co-species evolution, in the form of ancient plant–people relationships developed and applied as cultural knowledge over many thousands of years through food and medicine. 

photos by Frank Sperling and Andrew Rewald

[theconceptualcookbook]

Beyond the Pleasure Garden Berlin, Germany, 2018

EN: Yarrow

DE: Gemeine Schafgarbe 

LA: Achillea millefolium 

Ochtochen: native to grasslands of Europe, Asia and North America  

Edible: young leaves can be used as a salad vegetable 

Medicine: traditional medicine plant for all cultures where the plant is native, popular in modern alternative medicine practices as a herbal tea

Yarrow has been used for thousands of years as an all-purpose medicine plant throughout Europe, Asia and North America where different varieties are native to temperate grassland regions. The Latin name Achillea comes from the mythical character Achilles who carried the plant into battle to treat wounds (applied to wounds when dried and ground into powder). In British folklore Yarrow is said to provide second sight when held to the eyes and the dry flower is commonly used as a liver and kidney cleansing tea.

It is one of several herbs which the term “amphoteric” applies, to describe a substance that can simultaneously increase and decrease the pH of a solution. Herbalists use the term to explain Yarrow’s hemostatic qualities (stops the flow of blood) and diffuse qualities (keeps the blood moving) as a bidirectional action to achieve a variety of blood specific remedies for both clotting and healthy circulation. It sounds like potential conflict within the body, but it is believed that the body uses each different quality when and where necessary. There is a lot of information online about uses and benefits of this amazing plant and any further attempts by me to explain it would probably do it injustice. I recommend taking time for research to learn more about this amazing plant, its use throughout history and use benefits for the human body.

For Beyond the Pleasure Garden events over summer I served ice-tea made from Yarrow, Goldenrod and Horsetail in a meadow full of these plants and it’s interesting to note how these plants grew together naturally in this environment. While learning about Yarrow I discovered a medicinal herbal tea recipe with these three plants as active ingredients. When buying the dry products from an herbalist in Berlin I asked for advice about medicinal brews, only to be informed it is illegal for her to mix or give advice about traditional medicine from plants. In recent years a law was passed in Germany stating herbal mixes can only be made and sold by licensed pharmacists and to date only 4 pharmacists in Berlin do so. That Yarrow and many other plants are powerful medicines is indisputable, this is reinforced by rhetoric from pharmaceutical corporations claiming herbal medicines are dangerous when mixed with pharmaceuticals. There’s no doubt this is true due to the natural medicinal quality of plants, but the opposite can also be said that synthetic pharmaceutical medications are dangerous to human health when mixed with traditional plant based medicine. Yarrow is an example of the many plants that represent co-species evolution, in the form of ancient plant–people relationships developed and applied as cultural knowledge over many thousands of years through food and medicine. 

photos by Frank Sperling and Andrew Rewald

[theconceptualcookbook]

Beyond the Pleasure Garden Berlin, Germany, 2018

EN: Large Nettle, Great Nettle, Stinging Nettle

DE: Brennnessel 

LA: Urtica dioica (the family Urticaceae is found globally) 

Autochthon: dioica is native to Europe, Asia, north Africa and North America

Chemical and mineral composition: 

leaves contain tannins, formic acid, citric acid, essential oils, flavonoids, mucilage, beta carotene, vitamins B, C & K, histamine, glucokinnines, Silica, Calcium, Iron, Sodium, Chlorine, Manganese

Rhizome and roots contain b-sitosterol, scopoletine, lignans, specific lectin UDA, polysaccharides, monoterpenoids and tannins

Seeds contain vitamins A and C, calcium, magnesium and silicon, and essential fatty acids

Edible: leaf and seed

Medicinal: root, rhizome, leaf and seed

Nettle is an historically important plant known for its physical material strength and medicinal qualities and as a popular wild food. The leaf, seed, rhizome, root and stem have been used throughout human history. Stems have been used for making rope and fabric since Neolithic times. In cookery the leaf and seed are used. As a medicine, nettle is known to influence the liver and gallbladder functions, harmonise the metabolism and aid in general healing of sores. The leaves are used for their hemostatic, mild diuretic, antidiabetic and antirheumatic effects. The root and rhizome can be used to treat prostate disorders and a deconcoction from the fresh or dried rhizome is know to have a diuretic effect, aiding in removal of excess water and salt in the body. Seeds are considered the most nutritious part of the plant, used to relieve diarrhea, dysentery and asthma and aid in reducing problems with menstruation, hair, nail and skin, maintaining healthy prostate and liver function, with essential fatty acids that contribute to healthy brain function. Today, the most popular ways to consume nettle commercially are herbal tea using ground root and rhizome, or seed as a food additive. 

During my research in Berlin, the most often stated use for nettle by people I engaged with was to grind seed into a powder with sea salt as a popular food seasoning, which is also a Germanic folklore medicine. People forage in forests and parks around Berlin from early spring through to autumn for fresh tender nettle shoots (picked no more than 3 leaf rows down from the tip) which are then blanched and served with butter and potato or commonly added to soup. 

Over 2 years I experimented with nettle for 3 interconnected projects in Berlin, exploring different ways to grow, cook and preserve nettle leaves. For Beyond the Pleasure Garden I created a recipe for nettle fritters using leaves pickled in Kombucha vinegar. The fritters (photo above) were served with balsamic pickled wild garlic (Alium paradoxum) bulbils and aioli. I also harvested nettle seed in autumn to blend with salt and as part of a wild seed sourdough recipe I developed from several wild edible plants growing at Spreepark and harvested from a crop grown with community gardeners at Gutsgarten Hellersdorf and foraged in meadows and forests around Berlin. 

photos by Andrew Rewald and Frank Sperling

[theconceptualcookbook]

Beyond the Pleasure Garden Berlin, Germany, 2018

EN: Wild Garlic, Three-cornered Leek, Stinky Onion Weed

DE: Alium, Berlin Wild Garlic, Wonder-Leek, Miracle Leek

LA: Alium Paradoxum

Neophyte: Introduced to Europe in modern era (invasive species)

Whole plant is edible: leaf, bulb, flower, bulbil

Alium Paradoxum is native to the Caucasus Mountains between The Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. This plant was introduced to Berlin Botanical Gardens via Georgia in the 19th Century. By the 1920′s it had escaped beyond the gardens and spread throughout Berlin becoming a popular garden plant, but it soon infested surrounding forests where it now dominates the forest floor in spring and dies off by early summer.

As a conventional consuming vegetable it is known to have anti-parasitic effects for giardia and gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrhoea and dysentery. The leaves, bulbs and bulbils are best eaten fresh, losing flavour and turning tough when cooked. Add as an ingredient in salads or chop and add as garnish to hot dishes where the fresh green onion flavour is enhanced. Or dry the leaves and grind to powder for a pungent medicinal herbal tea.

Throughout April-May 2018 I harvested bulbils from forest areas around Berlin and Potsdam under advice from professional forager Jonathan Hamnett of Grunwald Foraging. Jonathan was one of my three collaborators from  Prinzessinnengarten and for the performances was a foraging guide for the events at Spreepark. In one of the above photos Jonathan shows bulbils to a class at Potsdam. 

For the summer events I pickled the Alium bulbil in Kombucha vinegar supplied by Alexis Goertz of Edible Alchemy, swapping to Balsamic vinegar after 2 weeks for extra taste. In June this was served with nettle fritters and aioli and in July with croutons and Burdock petiole caramelised in syrup made from reduced Birch tree sap.  

Photos by Frank Sperling and Andrew Rewald