Bread-making From Other Plant Products
Bread could also be made from roots and corms of plants. In the Top End of Australia, people such as the Yolngu used the lotus root and wild taro. These were ground, then mixed to a paste to make bread.
Water lily seed bread was also popular in the Top End. The two species of water lily used were Nelumbo nucifera and Nymphaea macrosperma. During the early part of the dry season, water lilies were an important part of the diet, with seed pods eaten raw or ground into paste.
Women had expert knowledge of how to "de-toxify" certain plant foods. The seeds of the cycad palm, Cycas media, are highly carcinogenic when raw and require elaborate treatment including shelling, crushing, leaching in running water for up to five days, then cooking. After this they are made into small loaves, which can keep for a number of weeks.
In Queensland, the people of the Mount Tamborine area used the Bunya Pine cone (bunya nut), endemic to the area, to make bread in this way.
Read more about this topic: Bush Bread
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