it's BUNYA NUT season in the northern hemisphere right now

August 18, 2022 1:51 PM

There was a bunya nut on the side of the road next to a bunya bunya (or, false monkey puzzle tree) the other day. I knew monkey puzzle tree nuts are edible, so I took it home and read up on it and checked a sledgehammer out from my local tool library and cracked it open and harvested its kernels. It's unusual around these parts (California) and, like me, my neighbors had questions, so I thought you might, too. Here's some articles on the bunya nut and its trees and history.

I would like you to know about:
- Bunya gatherings were a big deal. Bunya Dreaming in the 21st century.
- natural environment & culture and history
- This article has a brief traditional tree origin story and a picture in which the bunya nut reeeally looks like a pine cone.

Many articles point out that bunya nuts:
- are heavy
- can kill you when they drop (and do kill people).
- were probably eaten by dinosaurs with long necks. If only I could find that image of a brontosaurus reaching up into one of these trees again, I'd share it with y'all. "This was the predominant conifer genus on the single supercontinent, Pangaea, during the Jurassic era—199.6 to 145.5 million years ago." (I really wish that pangaea factoid was cited.)
- are edible and taste good (break open before roasting so they don't explode)

and that:
- the trees are easy to grow
- the trees get real big and can live for many centuries
- the trees are related to monkey puzzle trees
- that monkey puzzle trees are called that because a European was like "sure would be a puzzle for a monkey to climb that" or something like that and the name stuck even though monkeys aren't from where monkey puzzle trees are from

I would also like you to know that:
- 'It's like pineapple bombs are falling from the sky' - I found this article when I tried (and failed) to find a photo that really demonstrates how similar bunya nuts can look to pineapple. I noticed it the most when I was looking at individual husks to get at their kernels.
- Somewhere in one of the articles it talks about how the seed grows. It sends most of its energy into a tuber, which then grows the tree. Wikipedia would like you to know about the tree's architecture.
- Bunya nut sap is like glue. Getting the nuts out of their husks is sticky work! Remove the sap from your hands by scrubbing with baking soda.
- bunya bunya trees are from the Queensland region
- monkey puzzle trees are from a Chile/Argentina region
- the bunya nut kernels have yellow cores, they look like the center of a sprouting garlic. Don't eat that part. Definitely eat that part.
- I can't find the reddit comment any more, but in one comment at the bottom of a thread, someone explained that you have to peel the shell immediately after boiling (boil for 15 minutes) because it will harden as it cools. This comment is also where the sledgehammer was suggested. Presumably you can peel the shell if you boil them 30-45 minutes as is suggested somewhere, but I went with the one that says to boil for 15 minutes, so a serrated knife was required to open them. Eat fresh, boil, or roast. Most people seem to favor roasting, but I hear that makes them more dry. I quite liked them boiled. Here's No-fuss Bunya Nut Cookery
- They are delicious. Excellent texture and flavor. The flavor, in various articles around the web, has been compared to basically everything. Chestnut, coconut, almonds, cashews, beans, potatoes, pine nuts, macadamia nuts, parsnips, and more. Potatoes and chestnuts come up the most. I think their texture is waxy potato and flavor is movie theater butter popcorn flavor.

posted by aniola (19 comments total)

Hah, now that I'm closing tabs, I found that comment that suggested the sledgehammer. It is here.
posted by aniola at 1:56 PM on August 18, 2022

even though monkeys aren't from where monkey puzzle trees are from

That would make them even more puzzling to the little fellas.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:58 PM on August 18, 2022 [7 favorites]

"it's BUNYA NUT season in the northern hemisphere right now" just became the working title for my next concept album.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:03 PM on August 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

This is my favorite kind of post. Thank you!
posted by BrashTech at 2:27 PM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Someone posted this photo of their monkey puzzle tree the other day on r/marijuanaenthusiasts. I presume these are the 'nuts' from the tree's pinecones. I wonder if they taste the same?
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:48 PM on August 18, 2022

I have holidayed in the Bunya Mountains and yes, it is spectacular.
posted by b33j at 2:49 PM on August 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

When I saw those giant piñons, I had an immediate thought, and apparently so have others: Bunya nut pesto!
posted by TedW at 2:53 PM on August 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

When I was in grade school, older boys would shout "Bun ya!" as an insult.
posted by Goofyy at 3:04 PM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

“Bunya nut” sounds like Jamaican patois meaning something analogous to “flip out”: “Check this riddim, it’ll make you bunya nut!”
posted by acb at 3:38 PM on August 18, 2022 [6 favorites]

Monkey puzzle seeds are edible too, I should try some.
posted by away for regrooving at 4:03 PM on August 18, 2022

…flavor is movie theater butter popcorn flavor.

!!!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 7:29 PM on August 18, 2022

That photo with Leeton Lee is wild!
What ABSOLUTE UNITS
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 7:33 PM on August 18, 2022

Yeah, it was interesting. I got a craving for movie theater butter popcorn right around when we picked the bunya nut up. I even looked up butter flavor and learned that diacetyl (butane-2,3-dione) is a butter flavor chemical compound. I suspect my subconscious was picking up on a smell. Even though if you ask me what the unopened bunya nut smells like, I will tell you that it smells sorta like pine sap.

And then when I ate it the next day, I was like ?!?!?!!?! ok! And I wondered if it has diacetyl (butane-2,3-dione) in it, but I'm not aware of any publicly-available reference database that lists all the chemical compounds in any given food.

(But I also think beans and nettle tastes like black tea or earl grey or something, so who knows. Also wanted a foods by chemical compound database for that.)

Bee'sWing, I have not tried monkey puzzle nuts, but they are also described as chestnut-like.
posted by aniola at 7:50 PM on August 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

Ah man, I lived in a rental with a bunya pine in the backyard and you *hear* it when those things fall off. Like a bowling ball falling ten stories. Very much like it.

I only tried harvesting once. There's only so much pesto I can eat and each individual nut is like, the size of your fist. That's a lot of pesto. I also boiled and mashed, they make a very strange potatoless mash.
posted by Jilder at 2:59 AM on August 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

You can also boil-dry-mill and then use them as flour.
posted by aniola at 8:07 AM on August 19, 2022

I just harvested a couple of these. I know where there is a stand of five mature trees.

Here's an album of some I harvested last year around this time, photos and video of me processing this year's.

I didn't commit the final step on this year's seeds, which is to cut them open. Since there were two that seemed like they were sprouting, I am going to try and grow these. I still have some frozen from last season to eat.
posted by tomierna at 1:58 PM on August 19, 2022

Thanks for posting, this is fascinating info!
Reminds me of long ago grade-school camp in the Sierras for a week, we went on a night hike and were warned about "widow maker" pine cones dropping. What the hell a 6th grader was supposed to do to avoid a 5kg pine cone dropping from up to 20m, at night, I do not know. Just, be careful, kids!
posted by winesong at 2:23 PM on August 19, 2022

FASCINATING. Thank you for this post, I learned things today.
posted by kkar at 2:10 PM on August 23, 2022

Went back and found more bunya nuts in the ditch and a neighbor who said they just get composted. Fed ditch weeds to some friendly goats.

If anyone reading this is in Santa Rosa right now, I have bunya nuts and a tool library sledgehammer if you want to try some.
posted by aniola at 8:40 PM on September 3, 2022