Looking around the net, I’ve seen that some people look down upon the Mulberry. Even when I talked with people around me, every looked at it with disgust. I talk with other gardeners, and none have any real interest for this poor berry. I did eventually give some to my coworker, who turned around and thought that they were very good. Two members in my family, mine and my wifes father both grew up eating these berries. Both said they were good, but neither would think about going through the trouble of picking and eating them now. Oh by the way, I’m finding these at my father-in-laws house. He was trying to kill some of these trees.
My interest
So I got interest in these berries once I noticed them. They are next to my garden. At first I had no idea what they were, and had no intention of trying one. Then while surfing the survival podcast forums, I ran across a thread about the mulberry. Eventually I looked on youtube and found an interesting video by Deane Green, aka EatTheWeeds, which talked about the mulberry tree. After this, I started munching on the tree next to the garden. It was a nice way to get out of the sun for a few minutes, and enjoy a little snack. Yummmm.
Gathering a little late
Now I started gathering at the end of June. Really, it would have been nice to start sooner, as they stop fruiting about this time. I went out at least 4 days, and picked the fruit by hand. Now it would have been better and faster to put old tarps or blankets on the ground and just shook the limbs, but there is too much around the trees to do this. So I got out the ladder and picked away. I did have 1 and sometimes 2 little helpers. My daughter Avery was usually right there holding the jar or bowl. My son would lose interest quickly and went off exploring.
I would get about a 1/2 pint jar full of berries each day. Not a lot, but enough for my wife to turn into jam. I eventually found a total of 5 trees on the property. Two have light purple berries, which are sweet, but the trees don’t put out a lot of these. Then the rest put out black berries. The purples go from green to white to purple, then the black ones go from green to red to black. These black ones are a little tart, but still good. The taste is mild compared to something like a raspberry. In my adventures of eating foods like this, that we don’t normally eat anymore, it could just be because the food is mild compared to those that have a stronger taste.
Thoughts about the ancients
While going through and picking these berries, I stood there thinking about the Indians or any other ancestor having to pick fruits like this to survive. It wasn’t hard work, but it didn’t seem like much for what work I did put into it. We’ve worked to perfect some plants to give them bigger fruits, but looking back at these, something not really changed and you get the picture real quick of how hard it was to survive.
On average I’ve read that these trees produce about 25 lbs of fruit. Thats not a lot when you look at other trees, but when you look at how much it takes to make a pound and you realize its a lot. But that is if the trees are in the perfect location and everything, mine aren’t. But they still produced pretty well.
Tips to remember
When picking the berries, expect your hands to turn a different color. Mine turned purple. It even dyed a towel while canning it. Also have a helper to make it go faster, and bring a good ladder. Mine is only a 10 ft ladder, a 20 ft ladder would have netted me double the fruit I think. If you don’t pick every day, pick every other day. I actually only spent 30 minutes each time picking the fruit. Thats with all 5 trees.
And always remember to BE SAFE while picking. Its not worth getting hurt.
Canning.
I’m not sure of the recipe that my wife used, but it was good. I got to sample some and I’m thinking it will be one of my top jams now. My favorite is a four berry jam, with strawberries, blue and black berries, and raspberries. Maybe a 5 berry mix would be good, lol.
So there you have it
Please look at the pictures I took and put up on flickr. Let me know your experiences, or what you think.
Thanks.
