As a forager for more than 40 years, wild food researcher Peter Hardwick is no stranger to finding all sorts of uncultivated, native, and feral foods in the bush.
But it was his discovery of a thornless native raspberry seedling next to a car park five years ago, on Bundjalung Country in north-east NSW, that has the potential to be a game changer for the native food industry.
“I grabbed a couple of suckers and took them home and luckily I think one or two struck, and from that I’ve managed to propagate it, and I’ve grown it on and seen how it performs and here we are with a very nice specimen," he said.
While native raspberries are a popular indigenous fruit, they have thorny stems and producers find them challenging to harvest.
"So, to find a thornless one is fantastic because it means we can put this into backyards, schools, council parks and that sort of thing."
But it was a matter of wait and see if it was suitable for commercial production.
"It certainly has a characteristic ... but it needs to be trialled; it's a bit more involved before we get to that point," he said.
Nursery propagating thornless seedlings for schools
Daniel Stewart at Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery in Kyogle has been propagating the raspberry variety over the last few months and is excited to be working with it.
"Being pricked and stung by many plants gets to you after a while, so this is a welcome relief."
There is strong demand for native raspberries at the nursery and it regularly sells out of Rubus probus, commonly known as the Atherton raspberry.
"The native thornless is definitely tastier and it's more of a compact bush, and much easier to work with and more backyard-friendly," he said.
Mr Stewart said he believed the Atherton was more productive and there would be a demand for it.
A freak of nature?
But how did the native plant turn up thornless? Mr Hardwick says it is a difficult question to answer.
"To find something that’s thornless is quite unusual, I don’t know what sort of number to put on it, it could be one in 10,000, it could be one in a million, but thornlessness is a very unusual characteristic in native raspberries just to pop up without plant breeding."
Bundjalung chef excited by potential of traditional food
When native raspberries are in season, Mindy Woods uses the 'bush lollies' in breakfast, dessert and cocktails at her restaurant Karkalla in Byron Bay.
“It's quite a painful process harvesting native raspberries and the fact we can potentially now harvest them without the damage to our skin and limbs is going to be absolutely incredible."
The Bundjalung Widjabul Wia-bul woman said it will be a game-changer for the native food industry and its drive to make native foods more accessible.
"We'll be able to propagate these, plant them in not just only homes but hopefully in the schools all around us to get kids connected with these amazing traditional foods is what it's all about," she said.
Protecting traditional rights
Ms Woods said it was an absolute necessity that the Bundjalung people be involved in any commercialisation of the thornless native raspberry.
"Our ancestors have looked after these incredible ingredients for 60,000 plus years, there's a lot of knowledge, they're connected not just with us through them being a food, but they're connected to our culture and the country," she said.
Mr Hardwick is keen to involve the traditional owners in any crop development.
"I am very excited that discussions have begun on a potential collaboration with a Bundjalung based bush food enterprise with the thornless native raspberry," he said.
He said more protection is needed for traditional rights around native foods.
