Pigface fruit

What it is

The fruit measures 2–3 cm (¾–1¼ in) long. After the flower fades, the fruit beneath it swells and turns deep red, standing out against the leaves. The soft inside is eaten with its juice and seeds: squeeze it from the skin and leave the skin behind.

Where it comes from

Angular pigface grows along Australia’s east coast, on Queensland and New South Wales dunes and into eastern Victoria. Aboriginal peoples have eaten its fruit as a food source. The spreading plant also helps hold beach sand in place, allowing grasses such as spinifex to take root around it.

How it's eaten where it grows

In Australia, pigface pulp can become jam when cooked with sugar and water, strained and cooled. The fruit’s salty sweetness also suits a sauce called pigface gastrique: caramelised sugar and vinegar form a sweet-sour base, with the fruit adding its own flavour.

The sauce goes with seared kangaroo fillet and can also be used in cocktails. Fresh fruit offers a simpler mouthful, squeezed straight from its red skin with the small seeds still inside.

How it's grown

Pigface spreads along the ground on trailing stems up to 2 m (6½ ft) long. Roots form at the joints, anchoring new parts of the mat. It suits sunny, well-drained ground and tolerates dry spells, salt spray and strong winds.

Even burial in sand need not stop it. The plant grows upwards and forms a fresh mat over the covered one.

When and where you'll find it

On Australia’s east coast, pigface fruit usually ripens in summer and autumn. The flowers mostly open from October to January, and swollen, deep-red fruit follows once they are spent, easy to spot among the green leaves.