I have always thought of bamboo as extremely beautiful. There is something about those freakishly straight pillars that pierce their way through the surface of the earth to staggering heights almost overnight (ok, so it’s really over the course of a few weeks of overnights). I have always had a great sense of tranquillity in their midst, and have always had some growing on properties where I live (not always intentionally). At night when the breeze blows, you can hear the tips clashing lightly together and it is wonderfully soothing. What is not so soothing is trying to contain the ‘running bamboo’ when it has escaped it’s confines – it is vigorous stuff.
It is this very vigour, which has seen bamboo being used for multiple applications; flooring, screening, bedding, textiles, and of course my favourite… food. Which is how I came to meet Rebecca Nary-Dart, the passionate owner of Big Heart Bamboo, a grower and producer of fresh and pickled gourmet bamboo shoots, right here on the Sunshine Coast.
The Japanese are no strangers when it comes to using the edible bamboo shoots. There are apparently over 100 edible varieties, though out of the 1,500 or so bamboo species, there are probably a whole lot more, and for trivia’s sake, bamboo is in actual fact a grass!
Bamboo is generally classified in two groups; ‘running’ and ‘clumping’. Now it is the clumping one that you want to have in your garden, however it is the running one that I currently have… and it ‘runs’ very fast…
Over the years I have had a few occasions to visit Bamboo Australia at Belli Park on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, enroute to Kenilworth. I have always been in love with the endless bamboo groves on the property, and a few years back had the occasion to organise a bamboo inspired feast with the help of Free Ranging Chef, Peter Wolfe, duck man extraordinaire, Max Porter and with the permission of Bamboo Australia’s owner, Durnford Dart. You can read the story here
However, this story is about none of the above. It is about bamboo progeny, and how bamboo can get into your blood, just ask Rebecca Nary-Dart, Durnford’s daughter, and the gorgeous lady behind Big Heart Bamboo.
Bec’s father established the bamboo plantation back in 1989, and it has since become the largest bamboo plantation in Australia. It is seriously vast. Visiting recently was amazing. It has been a number of years since I last visited, and many of the groves were only newly planted; they are massive now. Incredible forests. It is hard to explain how these plantations make you feel.
It is quiet; they filter away the urban noise. The air is fresh; bamboo actually creates its own little microclimate. There is a real sense of calm, at times almost eerie calm, and the beauty of nature is quite overwhelming. Gosh, they are weird sticks! Yellow, green, grey, black, pinstriped, lichen covered, mottled, powder-coated. I could come up with descriptives until the cows come home. But there are no cows here… just bamboo, and bamboo, and more bamboo. It is one gigantic palette of colour and texture. Wow!
Bec takes me ‘deep into the woods’ by 4WD. At one stage, while I am clicking away with my camera trying to get every possible angle, she says she is going to turn the car around… I hear the car drive off, and I suddenly worry if she is coming back… I am silently wishing I had paid better attention on how we came in and that I had packed some breadcrumbs and left a trail…
She came back… relief.
The groves are thick and dense. It is easy to loose your bearings, unless you are a bamboo girl like Bec, and at one with her bamboo home.
While it was her father that planted the grove, Bec has adopted a lease on her own patch – a whole 20 acres – that’s a lot of bamboo! Of course she is keen to utilise the land to its fullest extent, which is how Big Heart Bamboo came about.
Sustainability is something that Bec is passionate about, so bamboo fits the bill beautifully – it is like a never ending well really – those shoots just keep coming. If you thin it out, it grows all the more vigorously. And the shoots, well, this is where Big Heart Bamboo really comes into its own.
Bamboo shoots really are quite the delicacy. Japan knows this. Asian chefs know this. Even pandas know this (although I think it is the leaves that they eat, so maybe they do not know this). We are just taking a little longer in the uptake. But Bec is working on it. She currently supplies a number of restaurants with fresh shoots and has developed an awesome range of pickled bamboo.
It is the pickled bamboo that I find really interesting.
When eating bamboo, there is one really important thing you need to know; you cannot eat bamboo shoots raw.
Apart from the shoots being quite bitter raw, bamboo has a toxin, taxiphyllin that is a cyanogenic glycoside, which essentially, produces cyanide in the gut – not good. However, through the cooking process (boiling for at least 10 minutes, then rinsing), this leaches out the toxins and makes it safe for eating, and also less bitter.
This is where Bec’s (or Missy Miwako’s) pickled bamboo is fabulous. Preparing bamboo shoots can be quite time consuming, but the pickled bamboo makes it ready to eat, just straight from the jar – pretty much the ultimate snack food. So for me it was into curries, into salads… and tapas straight from the jar. Bec suggested on pizzas, I haven’t tried that one yet, but I’m in.
Bec is currently harvesting 5 varieties; 3 clumping (asper, old hammii and the giant bamboo) and 3 running (moso and madake). Some of them are freakish in size. What is even more freakish, is that they burst through the surface that way – they are massive! While the clumping varieties’ season has just passed, the runners are yet to come, August, through to December, so if you are keen to find out more, check out the Big Heart Bamboo website or contact Bec, and place your order.
It is great to see Bec taking this underutilised tuber, and I look forward for more to come… Bec is definitely of big heart and the bamboo shoots really are grown with love on the Sunshine Coast.
This is Bec’s mantra;
“To step into the unknown; to follow your heart’s intuition and know that the universe will provide to those who follow their inner guidance; no matter how big the task ahead may be”
I like 🙂
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This story was written by Petra Frieser – Pebbles + Pomegranate Seeds
