Comments on: Mad About Mulberries

By: Bryian

Bryian — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ah yes, they do have mulberries in China. Ever hear of mulberry paper? Got one beside my house too. Two of them actually, so now we need a trained monkey to pick them for us. I know the trees here are climbable since our arboreal groundhogs love to sit in the tree and munch on them.

Oh, what about a mulberry drink like the grape I made? Over ice cream.... *shudder*

By: sprite

sprite — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is fantastic! We saw berries that looked just like this growing wild during our bike ride last week and didn’t know what they were (so didn’t pick any). Now I’m going back to harvest some. Thanks!

By: Judith

Judith — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“Maybe I can talk someone who is more adept at tree climbing than I am to take a basket up in their teeth and fetch us down enough berries to do something along those lines.”

Sounds like a job for Morganna Froghunter.

By: Barbara Fisher

Barbara Fisher — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, mulberry paper is beautiful, and is used in all sorts of artwork.

In addition, of course, silkworms are fed mulberry leaves.

The Chinese variety is called the "white mulberry;" the one native to the eastern US is the "red mulberry." There are also "black mulberries," but they bear fruit late in the summer, not late spring/early summer like the ones we have, Bry.

Arboreal groundhogs? I wonder if we can train them to carry baskets in their teeth?

Mulberry flavor might be too delicate to withstand your turbo-yeast treatment, Bry. Maybe if you used the less ripe berries and added a bit of something to kick up the flavor a notch. I don't know what, but I am sure we can think of something....

Mulberries are cropping up everywhere, Sprite! Welcome to my blog--nice to see you--feel free to comment or ask questions any time you like. Dialogues are fun here.

Judith--you know, I was thinking that it would be a perfect job for the Wee Frogstalker! (I shouldn't call her wee for much longer--she is going to be as tall as me when next I see her--if not taller!)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I noticed the mulberries in the field next to us a while back (I live on the Gulf Coast, so ours are already gone). So I picked as many as I could reach and made muffins with them. Hubby was thrilled since he didn't know the tree was there.

So he went with me the next day, and he held the branches down while I picked, and he wanted muffins again (not unusual, he loves muffins).

But we were tired of getting so few when we could see so many. And no way were we eating the ground berries because the ducks from the mini-farm on the other side apparently spent a lot of time there too LOL

So I thought about it and decided to bring my cane (I hardly use it anymore, but keep it for the occasional bad day/s). It has a curved handle instead of the ones that are more of a right-angle.

He used the cane to reach the higher branches and then held them down while I picked. We'll probably stick to that way since it worked so good.

I saw a photo at http://www.foragingpictures.com/ that put down a tarp while someone climbed the tree and shook the branches. We might try that, with him climbing of course.

Oh, and when the blackberries started ripening, he didn't care about the mulberries anymore. But the blackberries stopped and we were able to get one more batch of mulberries (again in muffins).

Sherri