Muntrie picking at Canunda

It's that time of year when we go out into the wilderness, well the Canunda National Park to get our annual feed of muntrie berries.

We headed out after searching for a few geocaches in Millicent(Izzy's favourite thing to do), and one at the Mayurra Wagyu tasting rooms gate, which is on the way.

Muntries are a native berry to our region, formally called Kunzea Pomifera. They would have to be my favourite native flower. They flower in Spring and the  sweet apple like berries are ready to pick now.

I've been bringing the girls out here to pick muntries since they were little. Izzy's a bit over it, but Summer still squats by a patch and eats her little heart out.

They're a bit dusty straight from the patch due to the white metal road, which was awfully corrugated after a lot of use over summer. This road has been well used by four wheel drivers in that time, to get to the beach and tracks that take them all the way to Southend or Carpenter Rocks in the other direction.

After my encounter at Lake McIntyre, I was wary of snakes, as we've seen plenty of brown snakes through here in the past from the safety of our car.

I wasn't long before we had enough muntries to take home, the kids were ready anyway. I've been eating them with my porridge in the morning and have frozen some for putting in hot cross buns closer to Easter. It has become somewhat of a tradition. Summer is already asking when I am making muntrie berry buns.

I took the stony back tracks home, meandering through rocky farming land and wind farms. I pulled up right next to a windtower, turned the car off and we listened to the mesmerising whoosh of the blades, before finding our way to Burkhills Lane and home again.

Izzy's photo of me, picking berries

Dusty muntries

The small amount of washed muntries I didn't freeze and my porridge in the pan, ready for the stove. 

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Foraging at Canunda

One of my favourite things to do at this time of year is go to Canunda and forage.  We weren't there to dig for cockles and I only had one of my kids with me this time.

The last few years I have relished in taking my girls out to show them what we can get from nature. This year Summer and I picked muntries. Lots of muntrie berries and pig face fruits. It's the first time I have tried pig face fruits. There were so many, and there has probably always been heaps, I just never looked for them.

They taste just like feijoas! It's that type of fruit. It bugs the hell out of you because it is tasty, but you just can't pin point that flavour. It was my SIL that made the taste connection. She was apprehensive because my BIL told her they were poisonous. Fooey Nigel! They are so not poisonous and delicious to boot.

Summer just loves muntrie berries and she ate more than she actually put in her bucket. I couldn't be more proud.

The sound of the wild pumping sea was too much of a lure. Had to go for a short walk through the dunes to catch a glimpse of the southern ocean.

This place is amazing. Whatever cares you have, are quickly dissolved here.

The drop dunny in the camping area. It's free to come into the national park, but if you stay, you pay. What better time to come, when there a cockles in the beach, and native fruits to dine on.

Pig face flowers

Muntries and pig face growing together. Peel back the red skin from the bottom of the fruit and find the white seedy fruit inside. The two forked prongy things are like a handle to hold the fruit from.