Forest Foods.

Occasionally the berries of the karaka and the tawa trees are eaten. The kernel of the karaka was treated by cooking and steeping; the tree was planted in the villages and cultivations. The tawa is a highly resinous fruit, and in its raw state tastes like turpentine. No Maori would attempt to eat it untreated by drying and cooking. The native method is to split the fruit and lay it out on stones or slabs page 173 to dry in the sun; this process rids it to a large extent of its turpentine flavour. Then it is cooked and pounded into cakes, or otherwise prepared according to taste. At Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, some large flat silicated rocks (papa-kahatu) are pointed out as favourite places for drying tawa berries; the place is pleasantly warmed by the subterranean heat from the geysers and boiling springs. The tawa is an oval fruit, blue in colour, and not unlike a small plum. It looks tempting, but appearances are deceptive. The drupes are only fit food for pigeons, and even these birds when cooked retain the resinous flavour if they have been feasting on the tawa.

The fruit of the hinau tree, too, was eaten after much preparation. The juice of tutu fruit (tupakihi shrub) was made into a sweet drink; this was sometimes used to flavour the mamaku pith.

Bush settlers learned from the Maori many bush arts. They learned to make use of certain fruits and wild vegetables. One hint learned from the Maori was the fact that pikopiko, the young curly fronds of the ground-fern, was excellent when steamed with pork and potatoes and kumara in a hāngi; it gave a flavour to the food.