The providers of meals on wheels in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, are turning to traditional "bush tucker" to make their meals healthier and more appropriate for their elderly clients many of whom are Aboriginal.
Soon, they hope, the scheme will be so popular that pensioners across Australia -including the non-indigenous - will be reaping the benefits of a salt-free, low-fat, vitamin-rich diet.
The early focus will be on native fruit and vegetables, with a 25-acre bush tucker garden to be planted within months. It will provide ingredients such as guandong (native peach), bush tomato, bush bananas, desert lime, lemon myrtle and Kakadu plum.
But as soon as conservation and regulatory hurdles have been overcome, organisers intend to provide dishes using traditional bush meats such as goanna (lizard), echidna (spiny anteater), yabbies (crayfish) and freshwater turtles - alongside the more familiar kangaroo and emu. Fat and maggot-like witchetty grubs, an Aboriginal delicacy eaten raw or rolled in the hot ash of an open fire, may also feature on the menu.
Arch Campbell, 86, who has been receiving meals on wheels at his Sydney home for five years, described the bush tucker scheme as "a quaint idea" and said he was keen to try it. "I have never eaten bush tucker, but I love the outback, and I like the sound of emu casserole and kangaroo," he said. "I would probably try a witchetty grub, but then I've always been one to try new things. I tried the Chinese menu once, but it didn't really suit me."
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