Mulberries. Until recently, a mere mention this tree would get me going. I hate mulberry trees. They’ll conquer your yard and are nearly impossible to kill. Mulberries can send out suckers in all directions, sprouting new trees even if you chop down the main trunk. What’s worse, those that do fruit produce boring, low-acid fruit not worth eating.
Such was my belief for years. I had a mulberry problem in my yard when I lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and it was about that time when I got it into my head that the berries were no good. I can’t exactly remember why, other than I must have eaten some very, very ripe fruit.
These days, as I rehab my torn achilles — still weak after five months — I’ve taken to walking around my neighborhood more. Last week I detoured into a little park near my house. I’d been there before, and had not noticed much worth remembering; a few good oaks, but that was it. This time I heard starlings congregated in a corner of the park. They were on a tree.
It was a mulberry tree, and it was loaded with berries. What the hell, I thought. I was in mid-walk and it couldn’t hurt to pick a few for a trail snack.
Now there is this great episode of “The Simpsons” where they flash back to when Homer and the town drunk, Barney Gumble, were in high school. Barney did not drink at all then, and was set to attend Harvard University. Homer brought over some beer. Barney demurred. Finally, Homer convinces him to drink one. Barney’s eyes light up. He shouts, “Where have you been all my life?” and finishes the rest of the six-pack.
I felt like Barney. These mulberries weren’t at all insipid. No, they were tart and sweet and irresistible. And I am betting no one knows that this tree exists, tucked in a quiet corner of a little park.
Ever get one of those “I’ve been here before” moments? That’s what happened to me as I was eating those mulberries. Unlike most of my deja vu moments, however, I can remember the details of this one: When I was a boy, I used to play in the woods behind my elementary school in New Jersey, and right at the edge of those woods stood a mulberry tree. Put me there right now and I can walk you right to it, if the tree still lives.
Looking back I am sure lots of people knew this mulberry, but at the time it felt like the secret larder for me and my friends — in between “playing Army” or somesuch, we would gorge ourselves on mulberries, which I remember being ripe right as school was ending in late June.
The day after my discovery, I returned to the park with a plastic container and picked three cups of mulberries in about 10 minutes. I also saw that there would be more ripe in a few days. Mulberries don’t all ripen at once, and they ripen from a light crimson to a deep purple with reddish undertones. Mulberries are always redder than blackberries.
Mulberry trees are easy to recognize: They are the only thing in North America that looks like a “blackberry tree.” The trees have a light-colored bark and lightly serrated leaves with prominent, light-green veins.
There are several varieties of mulberry in the United States, including a native American mulberry. Colonists brought over the Chinese white mulberry centuries ago because we thought it might be a good idea to try to raise silkworms, which love these mulberries. Sadly, the worms all died. The trees did not. And by all accounts, the fruit of the white mulberry does indeed suck — no acid at all. I have never eaten one, however, so tell me if your experience is different.
As you might imagine, mulberries are super high in Vitamin C, reasonably good for iron, postassium and Vitamin K, plus they’ll give you a little fiber, too. Mulberries are also high in resveratrol, the substance present in red wine that experts say helps fight cancer. But who eats berries for the vitamins? We eat them because they taste good. Or at least I do.
My initial urge was to just eat these berries in a bowl, with cream. Berries and cream is my favorite breakfast in the world. But that wouldn’t make for much of a blog post, would it? So I thought about something to do with the berries. They seemed a little acidic — go figure, given my prejudicial thoughts about mulberries — for ice cream, so I decided on mulberry sorbet.
I often spike my sorbets with some alcohol to improve the texture, so I added some homemade elderberry liqueur to the mix. It was really good.
Mulberries have a flavor all their own. Flavors and textures are tough for me to describe, but I’ll try: Mulberries are denser and a little chewier than blackberries, which they most resemble. They are not as tart as blackberries, and my main flavor impression is a kind of high sweetness, like an alto to blackberry’s baritone. If blackberries are a cabernet sauvignon, mulberries are a pinot noir.
There are lots of other things I could do. I probably could do a mulberry ice cream. A mulberry sauce for venison or hare would be excellent, too. Do you have a favorite use for mulberries?
Mulberry or Blackberry Sorbet
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 5 cups mulberries or blackberries
- 2 tablespoons cassis or Port
Instructions
- If you are using mulberries, pick off all the green stems from the berries.
- Bring the sugar and water to a boil over medium heat. Let it simmer gently for 3-4 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool a bit.
- Meanwhile, Put the berries in a blender. Pour the syrup over them while it is warm but not hot. Buzz into a puree.
- Push the berries through a fine-meshed sieve set over a bowl using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon; this removes a lot of the seeds and stems.
- Pour the liquor into the bowl with the pureed berries and chill in the fridge for an hour or so.
- Pour into your ice cream maker and follow its directions.
Suggestions for making without an ice cream maker? Thanks!
What if I cannot use alcohol due to keeping my honey sober? Any recommendations? My neighbor just brought me a bucketful…
Julie: Just skip it. You will need to be a little more attentive to the freezing process. One trick is to move around the sorbet as it freezes, about every 30 minutes. That will make the ice crystals smaller and will make for a better sorbet that will not be overly icy.
Great! Thanks so much for the reply!
I have Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”. He has fruit v sugar v water tables for desired result: granita, med sweet fruit ice, sweet water ice and sweet fruit ice, the last is basically sorbet. I’d post it if I could! Blackberry Sweet fruit ice calls for 1 ½ c fruit puree, 11 Tbsp sugar and 2 Tbsp water. Blackberry Sweet water ice Calls for 1c puree, 12 Tbsp sugar (6 Tbsp for med sweet), 2Tbsp lemon juice, ½ c water. Maybe you Or your readers can play! Have fun!
I’ve been a mulberry fanatic since I was a small boy. My babysitter was an elderly lady and we discovered 3 big mulberries producing massive amounts of fruit, so we spent a lot of time through the coming weeks making jam and jelly. I loved that spot! Until the city cut the trees down, that is. Anyhow, I like them in cobblers, pies, smoothies, cereal topping, jam and jelly, and I have found them to be great when used for a sauce. I’ve had great success cooking cottontails (garden trespassers!)with a mulberry sauce. My friends raved about it, and I took pleasure in cooking the garden bandit with some of the produce he had been eating!
After many decades of trying every kind of berry I could find, mulberries are my absolute favorite for their high flavored tart-plus-sweet combination. Only the white and the red varieties can grow in my climate, but those names are not necessarily descriptive of their fruit as some of the “white” have lavender colored berries, and my “reds” have berries that are black when ripe. I have tasted very sweet white fruit in Kansas, and it is like candy without any tartness. These berries have such a high sugar content that they dry where they fall without spoiling. I think the dried berries would be good in desserts where you could add something tart to balance them.
The fully ripe “red” mulberries of my Illinois Everbearing trees are the best I’ve tasted (I’ve heard “black” varieties can be better but since they don’t grow here and they’re too soft to ship . . . ). A couple of years ago, though, I planted a variety called Kokosu. It has a striking appearance with huge tropical looking leaves and limbs that grow straight outward then curve up quite a distance from the trunk. Doesn’t look like any mulberry I’ve ever seen before. When it fruited, the berries were an interesting light purple color, but the taste was, as you described, sweet and bland. If that was the only mulberry I ever tasted, I sure wouldn’t have bothered to plant any more trees! I suspect you just ran across one of the not-so-great varieties that might have originally been brought to the country to grow silkworm forage–nobody cared how their fruit tasted!
I spread a sheet on the ground under red mulberry trees and very gently shake the branches by reaching up with a shepherd’s crook. Then roll the berries to one edge by lifting up the cloth, and dump them into a large flat container. The key is shake “very, very gently” or you will get a lot of unripe berries. Enjoy!
Mulberries are one of my favorite fruits ever. The instant I saw this recipe my mouth started watering. When summer comes around I will surely try this!
In my opinion and keeping mind that each of us have different tastes: Purple mulberries are my favorite–I’ve been eating the since childhoodd. White mulberries are meltingly sweet, delicate berries. I find the red mulberries rather tart, although they are sweet when fully ripe, which takes quite a while compared to the white and purple mulberries. Purple mulberries, when they are fully ripe, and incredibly delicate and sweet.
I had planted two mulberry tress afew years ago. This year they are not talk but full full f berries. What can I make with these that they will not go to waste?
When my son was 3, we made mulberry pancake syrup fr Father’sDay breakfast.
Thanks love the sorbet. Begbto differ on white mulberries. When ripe the are sweet and delish. My grandmother had both black and white mulberries in the middle East. Both yum!
There is a variety of mulberry called Girardi dwarf that grows to a large bush. Mine is about 7 feet tall and produces a lot of the black mulberries.
Mullberries are just coming on for us in Salmon Arm, BC, canada. We are pressure canning a few gallons, just the berries nothing added. And also doing a few gallons of mulberry and apple cider, using acid blend and the like to balance the flavour. Sorbet recipe looks great!
Just had to mention, cassis is made with blackcurrant, not blackberry. If you like Lambic beers, there is a cassis Lambic that is delicious!
wild berry filled summers exploring what later became moraine hills state park. and back home in the chicago suburbs the alleys had plenty of raspberries and rhubarb. most of the parks have mulberry trees as well. my kids are eating off of the same one i gorged on in the park across the street fifty years ago.
mom was right about bringing them home for a rinsing; we never thought about the pesticides the mosquito abatement district sprayed all over the trees. eh, la. endocrine problems/ the sins of our fathers…
In Arizona about 40+ – years we had a black mulberry in the front of the house and a white on the side. The trees were huge and the berries were gigantic.
I remember one berry would completely hide a 50 cent piece.
And I remember how much I loved them.
A few days ago I discovered a tree here in Redding, Ca. The taste took me right back to those trees. Albeit this trees berries wouldn’t cover a dime. So much smaller but, oh my goodness, the flavor.
I’m at 5000′ in central AZ, we have a large, old mulberry tree on our property that I’ve been harvesting from for a few years. We also have a friend from L.A. who takes home bags of the leaves to give away and sell. Apparently tea made from the leaves is good for various ailments.
When we moved to our house 40 years ago, mulberry trees lined the street. Then it was paved, and most of the trees were taken down. The trees that remain are treated like pests and all the low hanging branches have been removed.
I feel bad for those folk who don’t know they are denying themselves a real treat. Those berries make the best pie!
I am cultivating them on my property so my grandkids can enjoy.
We have white and black mulberry trees on our property and I’d argue that they taste almost exactly the same as the black ones. I will admit it was a little scary at first to put one in my mouth because they resemble larvae. 😉
My husband spent at least two hours rigging up a capturing system for our mulberry tree yesterday. We are on the Big Island and our tree is producing like mad. This is the first year we have done more than pick a few as it is on a steep bank and the fall into our gulch and are lost to what ever wild creature desires them. Tonight I spent at least an hour picking through to clean them. I then juiced them and pulled out my iPad to fine some recipes! Eureka! I have found one. I will be awash in mulberries for a while so if you are in the neighborhood…..
Here in South Africa the mulberries are just starting to ripen so now I have an icecream machine, the sorbet will be made as soon as there are enough. I usually make a mulberry shortcake or a crumble with them. A touch of lemon juice and or zest seems to bring out the full flavour of the berry.
Here I’ve found more than I ever thought I would on Mulberries. It seems that most if not all of the posts so far are from folks in the eastern part of the US. I live near Sacramento, CA. While walking my dog this past late May I entered a vacant city owned field and came across a tree with all of these lovely berries; berries in all stages of maturity. I’m one to try fruits and berries as I walk and bike around. I was elated to find that no one else cared to pick from this tree, my guilt of picking the tree clean except for the higher up fruit (gotta leave some for the birds)soon dissipated. Over the next 3-4 weeks I must have picked 4 or 5 one gallon freezer bags of these lovely berries. Mulberries on my cereal,Mulberries in ice cream, Mulberry smoothies, Mulberry gift bags to my friends.
I’m moving across town in a few months but plan to visit this vacant field next May and June.
Next year with a new crop of Mulberries, I look forward to trying some of your recipes.
looking forward to trying this next spring!
I didn’t read through all of the comments so maybe someone already said this but I rather like white mulberries. It’s true they lack the complexity of the red but they still have a delicate sweet taste that I think makes a fine jam, especially with a little lemon zest added.
Beautiful post though! Thinking about mulberry sorbet with brandy.
Hi Hank-
When my husband was deployed to Afghanistan he developed a deep love for the Mulberry fruit. The trees are abundant there, and he spent many a hot day enjoying a quick bit of respite and a few handfuls of berries under the shade of the Mulberry trees. When he came home he immediately started planting Mulberry trees on our CSA farm. We have 5 different varieties, including the white Mulberry. Contrary to popular opinion, we find the white mulberry fruit to be delicious. They are ultra-sweet, like tree grown sugar candies picked at full ripeness. They are not acidic, and maybe too sweet for some tastes, but I have a hard time believing anyone who tried one of our white mulberries would not fall in love. Maybe our hot dry climate in southern California has something to do with the flavor. It is a similar climate to Afghanistan, and may be just what the white Mulberry tree needs.
Quote: “Mulberry trees are easy to recognize” – I have to laugh at this – as I live in NZ and we were recently on holiday in the USA. We don’t have mulberries here in NZ – I had heard of them but never seen them actually growing before. I remember seeing these trees where we were staying and saying to my wife – what are these trees – they kinda look like “blackberrry trees” – curiously, exactly as you have just described them. Never got to try the mulberries before we left to come home – but I HAVE just made the panna cotta you recommend here – and I’m still sitting here in the “after glow” – totally delicious. Thanks for a very entertaining and informative post. Brent M (NZ).
Wow, just made the sorbet and it was awesome! You have a great writing style too, very fun to read.
Thanks,
Bean
oi if u want one of those tree is ur yard u can wait till some of the mulberries drop to the ground pick them up and put them in a pot water and wait for them to grow if that doesnt work there should be some baby trees underneath the tree and take one of them home and it should be as fruitfull as the one in the park
Hi Hank, I loved this post! Every year I eagerly anticipate the approach of ripe mulberries, the first crop that signals to me, the soon-to-be-onset of all the other berries I love to forage for and eat. I set aside an afternoon to pick my first pail of mulberries, make my grandmother’s pie crusts, and bake a delicious mulberry pie to welcome in the season.
I’ve noticed that the absolute best mulberries are picked when it has been hot and dry for a few days. Too much rain results in a watered-down, barely flavorful, and hardly like-able bite. But if you get lucky and have a few days of hot dry weather, those mulberries should be out-of-this-world delicious!
Truth be told, the only berry that I get more excited for than mulberries are wine berries. Do you have those in your neck of the woods?
Last summer disaster hit. We lost all of our elderberry trees to verticillium. It was horrific. I love elderberries. And elderflowers. And being able to pick them a short walk from my front door.
Since the evil of verticillium lurks in the soil for years, I don’t dare plant more elders. Thank god for mulberries! I found a local nursery that specializes in native species and they had lovely small trees for very reasonable prices. Our place is woody and wild and overgrown, so mulberries will fit right in. Thank you for recipes I can save until they’re large enough to get more than snacking harvests from.
Morat! this is a lovely mulberry flavored mead…that indescribable flavor gives this ferment an almost nutty flavor. One of my favorite wines to make.
Mulberry fool… or syllabub
@Dave I grew up and still am in Lancaster, PA, and I wholeheartedly concur. In my youth, long walks around fields to fishing or swimming holes were often powered by mulberries and raspberries found along the way. Sadly, the pond North of Lititz where we used to used to catch sunnies is drained, and the surrounding corn fields are now a mess of cookie cutter townhomes.
One thing is for sure: there are good mulberries and terrible ones. As a kid, we got pretty good at remembering where the good ones could be found.
Interesting how the mulberry/car theme comes up several times. When my husband and I were dating we used to pick and eat mulberries from an enormous tree that was in his neighborhood close to his house that had the misfortune to be in the corner of a parking lot of an apartment building. One day he came home and it was cut down because people had complained about their cars. We were outraged at the obvious lack of values.
Mulberry wine?
Hank,
I’ll be in your neck of the woods this Saturday morning. I’ll have to find this park… Certainly the birds — nor Hank Shaw — got to them all.
Bill
I find the trick to a good panna cotta is having barely enough gelatine to get it to set. I’ve a recipe at home somewhere that gives me pretty good results. I like to use cheap disposable plastic cups as moulds, especially those with ribbing as it gives some visual appeal to when unmoulded.
Here’s a post I did about a rather odd yet quite tasty recipe from Momofuku for panna cotta. http://xesla.ro/wordpress/cooking/corn-flakes-panna-cotta-with-candied-capt-crunch-and-avacado-puree/
Cork: They should be ready to rock by now. You will have a coupla weeks to get them – if you can beat the birds!
mulberry tarts and mulberry pies. Serve with Philadelphia style vanilla ice-cream or lime ice-cream. It’s been years since I’ve had mulberries. When we were kids they were a great treat.
I’ll have to second the cries of ‘ah childhood’. My grandmother and us kids used to pick mulberries in Nebraska, her hands were purple all summer long. Mostly she made jam and jelly and pie and we ate them. Really, really good with a flavor all their own. Oh, and we washed the cars, you can always tell when a mulberry tree is nearby…the bird poop is bright purple. Best to keep the tree at the park 😉
Wow–what a surprise, Hank! Now I’ve got to start looking, because I think I’ve seen those very pre-fruit stage in the neighborhood here on the Peninsula.
They are really hard on cars..paint I mean.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Josh: Don’t see why not. Let me know how it works out…
Laura: Having never seen a jockey’s locker room between races, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But I’ll take it as a compliment just the same. 😉
Lehua: Seems there’s a theme here about pairing venison with mulberries. Maybe I oughta defrost some and give it a go!
Eli: Yeah, I picked off every goddamn stem. Forgot to mention that in the post. As for your mulberry honey cake, I included it because it looked tasty…
Gorgeous, gorgeous berries and mouthwatering sorbet. I will file this in the back of my mind for the wild blackberries that grow like crazy along the trails of the state park I live near and hike in. I will bring a bucket and come right home and make that sorbet! Thanks for the idea!
Great post. I love the idea of using limes to add some acid to the mulberries. I can’t wait until they start coming ripe in the midwest – we have at least a few more weeks to wait. When I’ve picked mulberries they have thin little stems that you have to pinch off. (My attempts to pull them out resulted in smashed berries.) But I’ve never left them on for fear they’d stay tough and ruin the dish. Did you pick off all the stems before you made the compote or just leave them in there?
Also, I was pretty surprised (in a good way, definitely) to see a link to my old blog, Eli Cooks, at the bottom of the post. I’m very flattered to be in such good company.
Oh, childhood. I grew up in south central Pennsylvania. One of the highlights of that life was eating mulberries, concord grapes, black cherries, raspberries, and pears from wild trees, bushes, and vines.
The image of “some Mexican key limes hanging around” cracks me up – your kitchen must be like the jockey’s locker room between races…
Okay, I want to make a mulberry/boysenberry pie. You think those two’ll go together?
Hank-
You are correct, mulberries most certainly are a major berry in the middle east. In Lebanon, in my little town in the North the trees are everywhere and are very highly prized and loved. I much prefer them over the super tart blackberries. Maybe that’s because I loved them as a kid picked from the neighbors’ trees or from when my grandmother bought them from local travelling farmers/grocers…who knows. It’s a shame that I can almost never find them here unless I “forage” for them.
You are also right about the white mulberries, I never liked them. They basically had one flavor note, “mildly sweet”. They have no aroma, no astringency and not a hint of acid. Some in Lebanon prized those qualities though..go figure. I do remember town people using the leaves of the mullberry (known as “toot” BTW) to feed their silk worms.
Coincidentally, I just had a great meal from a very creative chef that used foraged mulberry. Chef Justin of Market Fresh Bistro in Makawao, Maui (Hawaii) created a mulberry-ginger compote to complement a medium-rare cut of venison. The compote set the venison off extremely well (I wish I had the recipe, but I have a feeling he would share it if you ask!). The great thing about Market Fresh Bistro is that they create new menus for every meal based on the local resources available (something important when you’re trying to promote sustainability thousands of miles from the nearest continent). (And you may like the fact that the venison was harvested from the local axis deer that are running rampant and destroying the forests in the islands, where they have no natural predators). (By the way, I don’t work at Market Fresh, but love what they’re trying to do here in Maui, as a newbie sustainable farmer)
Jam, I like the seeds and prefer it over a jelly
Compote – served with a seared venison loin….idea came from a caribou loin w/ partridgeberry ‘sauce’ I had in St. John’s at Bacalao (http://bacalaocuisine.ca/) …. best meal I’ve ever had in Canada.
Fresh over ice cream
Frozen to be used later for pie and cobbler
Josh: I don’t like a lot of stuff in my fruit compotes. Maybe a hint of allspice or clove, but that’s about it.
Karen: Thanks for the kind words! Yeah, I’ll skip the dress, but a shirt that color’d be cool.
Kate: Yes, there are all sorts of mulberry varieties in the world, and some are big bushes. They are apparently a major berry in the Middle East.
Carolina: Pail? What did you do with the mulberries?
Pale?? I need more coffee….
I’m usually out of town this time of year, so this is the first time I can take advantage of the two mulberry trees that are on the island I work at. Beating the birds to the berries has been challenging. Mockingbirds and grackles are so possessive. Instead of picking them, I brought a tarp and pale into work. Climbed the tree (only a few feet up) and shook. Bucket-o-berries ready for processing.
We have a few mulberries around us. The litter property lines in this area, for some reason. Few of them are at all productive and none highly productive. My husband did gather some a while back and ended up making a jam that was more of a cheese – in the sense that membrillo is quince “cheese.” It was more slice-able than spreadable, but good nonetheless.
Incidentally, I’ve wondered in recent years why the nursery rhyme speaks of “the mulberry bush.” If mulberries were bushes, I’d keep one, even in our very modest backyard. I only know them as massive trees that dominate a landscape, which we don’t have room for. Any idea whether there are mulberry varieties that remain bushes?
You say that flavors and textures are tough for you to describe, and then you come up with this?? “… my main flavor impression is a kind of high sweetness, like an alto to blackberry’s baritone.”
As usual, I have a difficult time with what I love more – your food or your writing.
I’d like to have a dress the color of that sorbet!
I think “tame” was the most apt description. I’ve been picking a couple here and there on my way to and from work each day. They’ve gotten better, and what I like about them is that, if not perfectly ripe, their tartness doesn’t implode your face. They are tame.
I think they might make a good compote with a couple of spices, but I don’t want to overload it. What might you recommend?