每三年大约是澳大利亚日左右我们家的Bunya松会落下一大批像足球大的松果，可收获一大堆肥大的松子来吃。
我10年前搬来farm时这颗大树已成年结果。许多年前的前主人种在了一个很好的位置，farm西南角离house有相当距离的farm最高点。你能想象足球大的松果砸下来…
我自打认识了我们的Ms.Majestic (我给她起的名字)后，读了她的一些信息：
- Bunya松树原产地是澳洲昆士兰的东南一带（和我最喜爱的Macadamia是同一地带！）。
- 据说Bunya有500年的高寿。
- 一般Bunya可长到30-45米高。现有的一颗活的Bunya超过50米高，她是记录。
- Bunya需要25年才成年结果。
- 每三年是个结果的大年。期间我的Majestic不结果的。有的说结得非常少。
- 几年前读到的一个松果的记录是18公斤！
- 她是澳土著人的传统食物。土著会把大量的带壳松果埋在湿泥里做长期保存。
怎么吃？
先看我做的视频如何处理：(见文章末）
我的懒人的做法是煮一煮后吃，老公喜欢加些黄油或蜂蜜。我到现在也没找到参考可不可以烤箱烤。（几周后的更新：谢谢朋友Phe分享她的尝试，烤箱175度，45分钟。刚出炉的大松果皮好剥，有点像栗子，好吃极了）
我数年前用煮好的果仁做了个甜品派.
Every 3 years close to the end of January, around Australia Day, our beautiful bunya pine Ms. Majestic will faithfully start dropping her huge cones. We often hear the “thump!” while doing our chores around the farm – it is scary!
After a lot of love we have given to her through the last few seasons – assorted manures, composts, organic matters etc, she decided to give us extra love back. This year her cones are fat and plump, with more kernels per cone than the previous harvests.
When we moved to the farm many years ago, I stumbled on this magnificent creature and fell in love with her. Here are some info crunching after various readings from the Internet.
- Bunya trees are native to south-east Queensland (Looks like south-east Queensland is “a land of promise”, my other favourite tree Macadamia is also native from there).
- It is said the life span of Bunya is 500 years.
- She matures at 25 years old.
- She can grow to 30-45 m high and the record height of a live one is over 50 metres – according to Wikipedia.
- She fruits every 3 years.
- I have read somewhere the record of heaviest cone is 18 kg. It was from its home state Queensland.
- It is bush tucker for Aboriginal people, who may bury the unshelled nuts in the wet clay to preserve them.
How to eat the nuts? See my video below. I usually do my lazy way, boiling 20 minutes then eat it without any dressing as my breakfast. Boss John likes to put some butter to flavour it up. But of course whatever inspirations you may have, go for it. Some updated information here, thanks to my mate Phe’s experiment. Oven baked nuts, 175 degree 45 mins. The freshly roasted nuts taste a bit like chestnut, easy to shell, yum!
A few years back I ventured to make it into a desert, followed a recipe of chestnut pie, replaced the chestnut with boiled bunya nuts, (see pictures below)
When the first time I learned the tree might live to 500 years, believe or not, tears started rolling down my face. I stood at the foot of the beautiful giant immersing in enormous admirations, “Dear Majestic, I promise I will come back to see you every 100 years!”
Picking Up Cones 
Cone pile Shelled Nuts De-shelled Nuts Boiling Nuts Boiled Nuts with Butter 
Bunya Nut Pie
