Blue Quandong Quandaries

Well in between showers today I managed to go foraging for some Blue quandongs (Elaeocarpus angustifolius) for the first time in days, it hasn’t stopped blowing and showering here in Mossman for over a week or so, I cant remember the weather ever being like this up here at this time of year in any of my previous stays and I couldn’t stand it anymore I had to go today. If I am physically able and I cant go foraging/fishing I get like a cabin fever thingy going on….. Even if it is only one food plant I come home with and I get to walk 500 meter or so I’m happy I really miss it when I cant go.

Anyway I ended up with some beauties some of the biggest ones I ever seen maybe they have loved all this rain and the wind has definitely help me because it has blown them all down onto the ground. The blue quandong is a rainforest tree that can get up to 50 meter high so you have to wait for the fruit to fall to the ground to harvest and some of the larger older trees grow amazing beautiful buttress and root system.
The area just down the creek from where I’m living  that I harvested today has a huge Orange-footed scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) nest under the trees, they are one of my favorite birds up here I love listening to their unique song echoing through the rainforest early in the mornings and later in the evenings. They are an funny looking bird and always make me laugh just like the Tasmanian native hens (Tribonyx mortierii). They make a massive nest out of soil, leaf litter and other debris just like a Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) if you have ever seen one of them, they are only the size of a domestic fowl and when you see the size of the nest it is hard to comprehend them making it and because they scrape the ground clean for meters around their nests it looks like a cultivated garden and today it was like walking into a wonderland with the dappled sun light making the bright blue quandongs look like glistering gems on the meticulously cleaned earth.

Oh and I also found a beautiful Cassowary plum (Cerbera floribunda) these are NOT EDIBLE ok I just wanted to share it with you they are an amazing fruit as is the Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) itself they swallow these fruits whole!!  They are spectacularly striking birds they look like dinosaurs hay…… and apparently scientists say they are like a living dinosaurs.

I managed to get a good kilogram or so before it really started to rain heavenly so I headed home, I sorted the soft ripe ones from the not so ripe ones and thought I would have a go at making a jam & a sauce out of them. I followed the same process I used in the white birch apples (Schizomeria ovata) in a previous blog mushing the flesh off the seeds. I then put some in a pot for jam which I simmered a bit then I added sugar, ginger and lime juice boiled it then when ready I put into jars. I put the other half in another pot for sauce to this I added sugar, ginger, clove, bay leaf, sweet paprika, chilly flakes, home made vinegar and I then boiled this for about 15 minutes then bottled.

I have to say this fruit can be very gainy/pasty & mouth puckeringly dry, is that a word puckerlingly well you know what I mean it certainly makes the mouth dry out & can be unpleasant depending on the individual fruit some are sweet and some drier & not so sweet but they all have to some degree this drying sensation in the mouth so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out and I’m a bit disappointed as it isn’t as pleasant as I would have hoped the sauce is better than the jam for just eating and it will be good because you are going to mix it with other foods ect but I tried the jam on a bit of toast and it was JUST edible like that, so I thought I would try it in a hot coco chia drink, I used the jam as the sweetener and it was good like that so I will use this as the sweetener in my herbal teas especially when getting a cold or though the cooking my have killed a lot of the vitamin C I’m sure because of the puckering effect there are still medicinal properties in it. No surprise fresh is best I love sucking on these gems fresh just like a lolly.

Well that’s it for this one, I think this blog ended up being more about birds than food hehehe you get that, you got to love all the joys of foraging in the wild our bird friends as well, I hope you can find this yummy rain forest treat some where.