Native Oz Bushfoods: Available to Order Online

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Native Oz Bushfoods is an Aboriginal family owned, Lockyer Valley based, company currently appearing locally in South East Queensland Markets as well as selling nationally through their online business. Their carefully crafted products are a great way to add the flavour of the Australian bush to your food.



The Native Oz Bushfoods Story

For, Doug and Tacey, the husband and wife team behind the business, inspiration came from cooking at home and using native Australian ingredients in their food. Friends wanted to know what they were using and where to get it. Of course, the answer was to grow, forage and make your own, but they realised that there was a business opportunity in packaging this up for the general public.



It took time and effort to find the right ingredients, including learning what will grow well in the Lockyer Valley and which varieties are the best to eat, as well as sourcing other ingredients from indigenous sources around Australia. As an Aboriginal family they have worked with suppliers in different parts of Australia, including Kakuda, and made sure that they have permission to use certain words or ingredients that are part of various native traditions around Australian.

They then had to turn the raw ingredients into wonderful tasting sauces. The process for this took time to achieve but has produced great results with a wide selection of products.

Highlights

It would be difficult to review every product in their catalogue and I haven't tried anything from them that I wouldn't eat again. However there are a couple of items that really matched my personal tastes.

For me, the biggest highlight is the Quandong & Native Lime Sweet Chilli Sauce which packs a triple bunch, combining natural sour flavour, a hint of sweetness to contrast, not hide, that, and enough chili to help with the flavour. The simplest use for these would be as a steak sauce, but I can imagine it going well with roasted sweet potato as well.



They also use Old Man's Saltbush in their spice blends or you can buy the dried herb straight. Many farmers are familiar with this plant as something cows enjoy eating but they would mostly be familiar with the varieties that people really don't like and shouldn't eat. Native Oz Bushfoods have sourced and grown a variety that makes a great herb to add to salads or rub onto a meat. This is the advantage of native knowledge of the varieties of common plants across Australia.



Another highlight, is the Small Leaf Tamarind Jam, which is delicious without being overly sweet. While all the jams were nice, this one is something special. You could eat it by the spoonful, but I would suggest putting it on scones.

Overall

One of the biggest problems with finding native Australian flavours is that often they just hide those flavours behind sugar or other tastes we are more familiar with. Native Oz Bushfoods has really put the effort into finding the right ingredients and producing sauces, syrups, jams, relishes and spice blends that put the native flavour first.

The author sampled Native Oz Bushfoods as a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland

#aboriginal
#food_wine
#lockyer_valley
#near_brisbane
#shopping
#toowoomba
%wnbrisbane