Purple Berries

[corvus]

Whilst not being Fungi I did read somewhere that Billardia Longifolia (spelling ??) climbing blueberry was edible and remeber waxing lyrical to my Scouts to that effect on a trip into Lees Paddocks picking one and taking only a tiny nibble ,the effect on my tastebubs confirmed my thoughts as to why the birds dont eat them it took copious amounts of water to get rid of the acidic taste from my lips .
The moral of my tale is "let he who say it is good take the first big bite" and if in doubt only eat that which comes out of a known food source

(Admin Edit: This topic has been split out from an edible fungus topic from the Tucker forum.)

[corvus]

In a previous post I mentioned that Billardiera longiflora Climbing Blueberry was very bitter when I tasted it ,if I had done more research I would have discovered that it ripens late Summer late Autumn and on a trip over the weekend we tried them again and they were quite edible and according to experts better cooked.
The moral of this is do the research B4 you eat any native fruit/plant/fungi

[Joe]

aaah so my theory that sugar came on later in process and calmed the acid was a good one then. There certainly was an abundance of them on the lees track.

[corvus]

They also make a good Native garden plant and I will be checking out seed soon,wonder can I make a Liqueur from them -500g fruit 500g sugar 700ml spirits Vodka or Brandy ,mix shake soak till sugar is disssolved leave for a couple of weeks and drink ,mmm just a thought

[Joe]

speculator has done lots of vodka infusions...he would be the man to talk to about that I rekon it would work well though. if they are sweeter once ripe then I even think you could drop your sugar down a bit.

[Son of a Beach]

hmmm... just checking on this (after reading a topic on them in TassieMargie's 'Real Tasmania' forums), I think there may be some confusion on this.

I think the berries I saw on the Lees Paddocks track yesterday are actually Daniella tasmanica (Tasman Flax-Lily).

Check out the pages at Daniella tasmanica and Billardiera longiflora

The ones we tried on the track on the weekend were Daniella, I reckon. So perhaps the Billardiera are the bitter ones?

Edit: Come to think of it, if Billardiera are the edible ones, maybe I'm going to keel over some time after trying Daniella!

[corvus]

After doing a double check you are correct it was the Daniella Tasmanica we tried I should have sussed with the flax like leaves it was growing from

[Cheesypigs]

I'm fairly certain flax lily is edible anyway so you should be right... Wild food plants by Tim Low says it is, the beach variety is sweet but others are insipid apparently.

[corvus]

The ones we tried on the Lees Track were sweet as so I just need to find some climbing blueberries Billariedra Longiflora to do the comparison ,however I suspect I have found my favorite

[TassieMargie]

Thanks for the links SOB. I think you may just be right about the flax lily.

[ashlee]

hmmm... just checking on this (after reading a topic on them in TassieMargie's 'Real Tasmania' forums), I think there may be some confusion on this.

I think the berries I saw on the Lees Paddocks track yesterday are actually Daniella tasmanica (Tasman Flax-Lily).

Check out the pages at Daniella tasmanica and Billardiera longiflora

The ones we tried on the track on the weekend were Daniella, I reckon. So perhaps the Billardiera are the bitter ones?

Edit: Come to think of it, if Billardiera are the edible ones, maybe I'm going to keel over some time after trying Daniella!

Dianella is a grass and Billardiera is a climber, I've heard you can eat both but not too keen to try them out lol...
Did try Kangaroo Apple (Solanum laciniatum) once, it was pretty acidic, tasted somewhat like a tomato. I hate tomatoes so didn't like it, plus it wasn't quite ripe... But people that do like that sorta stuff might like em?