Boobialla

Myoporum insulare

Sold as native juniper, and that name is doing some work. Boobialla isn't a juniper and isn't related to one. But the berry carries a piney, aromatic note close enough that Australian distillers have started reaching for it where a gin recipe would otherwise call for juniper, and at least one now bottles a gin built around it.

The fruit is small, smooth and round, purple through to black, somewhere between a peppercorn and a pea. The flavour has been described as sitting between stewed apple and kiwifruit, with a salty edge and enough astringency that it's better cooked than eaten off the bush. It goes into jams, jellies, tarts and preserves, and into spirits. It was a food plant for Aboriginal people long before any of that.

Ours are planted through Zone 4, on the rip lines between the raised beds. We have a lot of them, and they are growing faster than anything else on the place — which, on ground this dry, this frosty and this exposed, is worth saying out loud. They are likely to be our second crop, behind the finger limes.

Get in touch if you'd like to know when they're ready.