Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by Australian Aborigines for many thousands of years made by crushing seeds into a dough after which it is baked. The bread was high in protein and carbohydrate, and helped form part of a balanced traditional diet.
With the arrival of Europeans and pre-milled white flour, this bread-making process all but disappeared (women were still recorded to be making seedcakes in Central Australia in the 1970s). The tradition of cooking bread in hot coals continues today.
Bread-making was a woman's task. It was generally carried out by several women at once, due to its labour-intensive nature. It involved collecting seasonal grains, legumes, roots or nuts, and preparing these into flour and then dough, or directly into a dough.
Read more about Bush Bread: Bread-making From Other Plant Products, Burke and Wills
Famous quotes containing the words bush and/or bread:
“Read my lips: no new taxes.”
—George Bush (b. 1924)
“There is not the woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband, or brother; for any one who does so eat her bread places herself in the power of the person from whom she takes it.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)