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Richard Wright · 08-03-2008, 06:57 PM posted to sci.bio.botany

On Thu, 6 Mar 2008 00:02:35 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

snipped

Hello
Can anyone tell me how to grow bunya? I came across a green cone a
cople of weeks back and it is just starting to pull apart. Do I dry
the seeds out for a while or can I plant straight from the cone? What
conditions should I grow it under? How long will it take to
germinate? Also, do I need to dry the seeds out like walnuts before
eating them? Eat them raw or cooked, and if the later, how to cook
them? Thanks for your help.
Keith

The nuts shoot quickly and easily. Put the plumpest nuts on their
side, pressed into the surface of soil you keep permanently damp. See
which nuts sprout. When they sprout bury them 5-10 cm down in soil -
root end downwards obviously.

I find them disappointing as food. Very nourishing constituents, but
virtually tasteless.

Cooking whole nuts (whether roasting or boiling) turns them into lumps
like ivory, in my experience..

The only satisfactory recipe I have tried (don't know where I got it
from) is to make biscuits. Smash the FRESH nuts with a hammer,
preferably when not dried out. Turn them to a gritty powder in a
robust food processor. Then add this bunya nut powder liberally to a
standard biscuit mix - say one third nut powder. Chances are your
tastebuds won't detect that you have added any bunya nut powder.

In fancy Aussie food stores, in unreal touristy locations, I have seen
bunya nut pesto. You can taste everything but the bunya.

In summary, bunya nuts are a bland, if nourishing, food.