Quandong clearly heads the list of the next wave of incredible Australian Cuisine Products which is gaining national and international recognition. A list, which includes Wattleseed and Wild Lime along with Quandong are the superior products that are most likely to succeed and will be household names internationally in 10 – 20 years time.

The Quandong, or as some know it, the Wild Peach is a member of the Sandalwood family. Santalum acuminatum (Quandong) was one of the few foodstuffs dried and carried by the Aboriginal communities when hunting and whilst on their long journeys and it was eaten either fresh or dried. The nut was also eaten and as a chewed paste it was used as an ointment to heal sores and bites because of its natural antibiotics.

The tree has a wide distribution over southern Australia and grew in great numbers until agricultural and pastoral development destroyed its natural habitat in many areas.

As a fresh fruit it is often dry. It has not therefore achieved universal acceptance as a freshly eaten fruit, but there are many thousands of aficionados who adore the fresh taste. Significant numbers of country people, where the Quandong still grows in natural scrub and along roadways, have their favourite tree which they carefully watch over and harvest each year as their fore bears have done for generations. Breeders are developing fruit which has a ‘zesty’ taste and which can almost be described as juicy. The fruit is generally used for desserts, jams, chutneys, pies and as a ‘leather’. Chefs now commonly use Quandong as an ingredient in stuffings or as a glaze over Kangaroo meat.

The Quandong is a root parasite and must attach onto a host plant to survive. Generally the woodier the host the more virile the tree.

The flesh is dried very easily without additives and when the dried flesh is reconstituted there is little or no loss of nutritional value or taste from the original fresh fruit.

Quandong has one of the highest concentrations of vitamin C in any fruit or vegetable.
The nut is considered by some, including Quorn Quandongs, to have equal potential to the fruit flesh. Little research has been devoted to the nut but some supporters claim the Quandong nut has the potential of the Macadamia.

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