This week while in Coffin Bay on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, Vic Cherikoff and I were happy to discover a number of quandong trees (Santalum acuminatum) not far from the roadside and fully loaded with their bright red fruits.

For those who don’t know, the quandong is also called the native peach as it has a stone like seed with a subtle peach-apricot flavour. Locals in the Coffin Bay area use the wild fruits to make quandong pies or quandong jam at this time of the year.

Quandong is a word from the Wiradjuri Aboriginal clan for the fruit which was eaten when in season. They also dried the fruit for future eating. Other names for the fruits included mangata, katunga, goorti and burn-burn but there were many other names as close to a dozen Aboriginal clans knew and ate the fruits. They also ate the roasted seed kernel but a closely related plant, the sandalwood (Santalum spicatum), has a larger and more palatable kernel and was eaten more often.

The quandong shrub is often found in the arid zones of Australia, typically from Western Australia through South Australia to the middle of New South Wales and is in fruit from September to the end of November. The quandong shrubs we found were just above the shoreline and we were both pleased to see them with so much fruit and ready to photograph.

As the quandong fruits vary in their sweetness, bitterness and size, Vic Cherikoff takes the fresh quandong halves once the seed is removed and preserves them over a 6 week period with a proprietary mix of sugars to make an exceptional Quandong Confit. This spreads the use of the fruit year-round as well as enabling the quandongs to be shipped worldwide, unrefrigerated. He recommends that they be chilled or frozen on arrival for extended shelf life. Quandong confit can be used in savory dishes, particularly with beef, lamb and kangaroo but also with fish such as the Eyre Peninsula farmed kingfish or mulloway. They complement the fat, Pristine oysters and can be thinly sliced for this. Quandong confit is also delicious in desserts and cocktails but with our fine Australian cheeses they excel.