Bush Basil

Twenty months ago, for Mary’s 70th, we threw a birthday party at the farm that involved more mulch than cake. It was the weekend of 5 November 2024 and the “gift” was a native food forest. We’d already spent months prepping a patch of ground down by the river; solarising then stripping back the grass and weeds; deep mulching then running in watering lines to help get everything through its first year or two. Over the party weekend we planted close to 500 seedlings, from 70 different native food species. A nut grove with macadamias and bunyas and others; a wattleseed grove thick with acacias; and a scattering of everything else we could get our hands on. The plan, over coming years (and decades), is to host native food harvest-parties and cook-ups …and more plantings on this patch.

And that’s the frame this whole site sits inside. bushbasil.org is a working record of me trying to cook well with Australian native flavours, using recipes explored, extended and tested here on the farm — with an honest account of (IMHO) what works, what doesn’t, and what I’m still figuring out. Right now there isn’t much here — a handful of early recipes, some flavour reference material, a few ideas still in draft. That’s fine. This post is the starting point, not the finished product.

So what’s with the bucket of bush basil leaves?

Last week I did the first major pre-spring prune of the five bush basil shrubs in the food forest. Which is great as we initially only planted five, and overall we’ve lost close to a third of the 500 bushes, shrubs and trees we put in twenty months ago. The survivors that made it through are now just starting to earn their keep. This prune yielded a small bucket full of fresh bush basil leaves, and they are destined to transform into a batch of bush basil pesto this week.

Why bush basil is worth the fuss

Australian bush basil (Coleus graveolens syn. Plectranthus graveolens) is a native shrub in the mint bush family (Lamiaceae) … and not part of the Ocimum sweet basil we buy in bunches from Coles or as seedlings from Bunnings. Our native bush basil has its own distinct character, and while there is a familiar basil note underneath, it is layered with mint and camphor, and an overall aromatic that is sharper and more complex than sweet basil.

Early European settlers called it the “Five Spice Plant” because the aroma seemed to move between basil, mint, oregano, thyme and sage all at once. So it is ironic that the scientific name of this sweet smelling native is “graveolens” which in Latin means “strong, unpleasant smell”.

In Australia our native herbs are generally named after whatever common herb they vaguely resemble (names like “native thyme”,  “native mint”, “bush basil”). This is good as when we go on a cook adventure, we can start by simply using them as a stand-in for thyme, mint and basil! And the results often then are exciting as we discover they actually each have their own distinct flavour … which we can explore and develop further.

Which brings us to pesto

Pesto, is a technique more than a fixed recipe — pounded fresh ingredients, traditionally worked with a mortar and pestle, bound with oil. It usually embraces a herb, nuts and cheese and pesto alla genovese, the famous Ligurian version with basil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmigiano, is perhaps the best-known instance. But the template can include whatever the local pantry offers, so the notion of native Australian pestos was inevitable and there are so many commercial variants and recipe variations available. My favourite pesto is a simple variant of pesto alla genovese where we substitute some of the basil for bush basil and all the pine nuts for macadamias.

That’s exactly where this week’s batch of leaves is headed — a bush basil, basil and macadamia pesto.