Are bunya-bunya nuts safe to eat if the shells are moldy?
We recently harvested a bunch of bunya-bunya cones and set them aside for a while to wait for them to split open. Unfortunately, we forgot about them for a while and it rained in the meantime, so not only did they split open, but they started rotting.
However, the nuts themselves are double encased, first in a husk and then in a leathery shell. I've discarded the obviously spoiled ones, but are the nuts still OK to eat if the shell is a bit moldy? I tried opening a few, and the nuts showed no obvious signs of spoilage, but they were also a bit squishier than usual.
For what it's worth, Aborigines are said to have buried the nuts in creeks and eaten them after fermentation, but I'd prefer my bunya nuts unfermented ;)
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Are bunya nuts toxic?
I removed the cotyledon the first few times I ate bunya nuts. Then I ate them with the cotyledon - and noticed no noticeable difference. I no longer bother removing the cotyledon. The nuts are safe to eat raw but are much tastier cooked.How do you know when a Bunya nut is ripe?
They should taste waxy and the little white ones tend to be a bit powdery. You will need to cook the nuts for 30 to 45 minutes. If they are undercooked they are dry.How do you preserve bunya nuts?
The nuts (seeds) can be eaten raw when fresh, but it is a lot easier to boil the seed pods to extract the nut. The nuts can then be roasted, sliced or pureed and used in desserts and savory dishes and spreads. The nuts can also be milled to a flour and then used in various doughs.Bunya nuts: delicious, culturally important \u0026 dangerous 🌰 | First Nation Farmers Ep1 | ABC Australia
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