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I regularly eat bunya nuts from the Australian bunya or false monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria bidwillii). It is said to have appeared in the Jurassic (~200 - 145 mya). They are very tasty.

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I scrolled looking for these. I get a few every year at my place but tend to marvel at their size, eat a couple raw then throw them away. I've tried oven/fire roasting them like we do macadamias but wasnt too great. Any preparation you recommend?

For people that dont know these, think pine cone thats a little bigger than a bowling ball. They are pretty amazing looking things.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-12/australian-native-bun...

I leave the cone in a bowl until the individual seeds just start separating. Then I pull them off and put them on a tray and in the oven (~150 degrees) for 10 - 15 mins.

I’m surprised to hear this — living in Sydney, I don’t recall ever seeing any. Where do you find them?

(There’s a smallish bunya-bunya near my house, but I don’t think I’ll try gathering nuts from there myself…)

I am up in Brisbane. I get them from my brother who has a few trees on his property in Maleny. I used to get them from the staff at Roma Street Parkland.

Ah, interesting. In that case, if I want some, I guess I’ll just have to wait until I find a cone myself!

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