Solanum centrale
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| Australian desert raisin | ||||||||||||||
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| Solanum centrale J.M.Black |
Kutjera, or Australian desert raisin (Solanum centrale) is a plant native to the more arid parts of Australia. It has been used as a food source by Central Australian Aboriginal groups for millennia.
Like many plants of the Solanum genus, Desert raisin is a small bush and has a thorny aspect. It is a fast growing shrub that fruits prolifically the year after fire or good rains. It can also grow back after being dormant root stock for years when there was not good rains. The vitamin C-rich fruits are 1-3 cm in diameter and yellow in color when fully ripe. They dry on the bush and look like raisins. These fruits have a strong, pungent taste of tamarillo and caramel that makes them popular for use in sauces and condiments. It can be obtained either whole or ground, with the ground product (sold as "Kutjera powder") easily added to bread mixes, salads, sauces, cheese dishes, chutneys, stews or mixed into butter.
Mardu people would skewer bush tomatoes and dry them so the food was readily transportable.
[edit] Some other names
| Language | Name |
|---|---|
| Alyawarr | Akatjurra |
| Arrernte | Merne akatyerre |
| English | Bush raisin, Bush tomato, Bush sultana |
| Pitjantjatjara | Kampurarpa |
[edit] Cultivation
Traditionally the dried fruits are collected from the small bushes in late Autumn and early Winter. In the wild they fruit for only two months.
These days they are grown commercially by Aboriginal communities in the deserts of central Australia. Using irrigation, they have extended the fruiting season to eight months.
It is grown as a modern commercial industry by Amata and Mimili communities in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, by the Dinahline community near Ceduna, by the Nepabunna community in the northern Flinders Ranges, and on the Tangglun Piltengi Yunti farm in Murray Bridge. It is marketted by Outback Pride.
[edit] References
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