Mulberries!

[Tiny]

My neighbor's yard has fallen into ruin (long story) and a mulberry tree has finally gotten big enough to make mulberries.   Some of the overhanging branches are in my yard.      I hate the Weed Tree - but I'm disliking it less since it looks like I may have enough berries to make a small batch of jam.

I routinely "round up" the mulberry weeds that come in my yard... they are relentless and never ending.   I'm sure I'll be battling them even more now that seeds are 'falling from the sky'. ::sigh::   The berries are tasty though.   

Anyone else reaping the harvest that Mother Nature has provided?  

Any good recipes/ideas for what to do with the Mulberries?

[mmhmm]

My grandmother had a mulberry bush. You can use them much like you'd use blueberries. They make good pies, are good in muffins or pancakes, in jams, and just plain on cereal or in oatmeal. I'll bet they'd be good in smoothies! 

[Apple]

I've never had mulberries, sound yummy!

A coworker has a bunch of cherry trees.  He either has to pay someone to pick them, or will let groups come in and pick them for fundraisers, he doesn't pick them himself.  He told me to come up and pick all I wanted.  We picked a few buckets full before it started raining (we had just finished).  My mom canned 28 quarts, dried some, and we've had lots of them fresh.  I would have helped can, but I was working nights.

[Chocolate Lover]

Is eating them all right off the tree the wrong answer? It's the only one I have. I've never walked away from a tree with berries in hand.


Disclaimer: It wasn't my tree either, it's my aunt's.  A hurricane took down the one that bore fruit and the smaller ones haven't had any yet.

[Apple]

The only thing I will miss about my old job is working outside in the mornings and stuffing my mouth full of blackberries.  We don't have blackberry bushes at the new location (although I have them at home and my parents have some).

[Anne_in_VA]

We had a mulberry tree that we had to cut down.  We used to just eat them fresh or on cereal like any other berry, although I made jelly once with them.  I never got too many of them because the birds would get there before me.

We just got a fig tree that's loaded with figs.  Anyone have any good recipes for figs?

[Chocolate Lover]

My great aunt just made preserves out of them. They are still whole. I have no idea how she does it but I can ask. That's all I've got. They are awesome on hot biscuits though!

[Apple]

Jun 28, 2016 17:24:29 GMT -5 Anne_in_VA said:

We had a mulberry tree that we had to cut down.  We used to just eat them fresh or on cereal like any other berry, although I made jelly once with them.  I never got too many of them because the birds would get there before me.

We just got a fig tree that's loaded with figs.  Anyone have any good recipes for figs?

I second the preserves, really good.

Some of these look good too (I've never had them):


www.southernliving.com/food/entertaining/fig-recipes

I wonder if our farmer's market will have figs, they usually have dates...

[kadee79]

We have both wild blackberries & blue berries on our property. I pick & freeze them...use the blackberries for cobblers, jelly, fruit salads too. Blue berries are mostly used in cereal & pancakes since I don't get that many...and the wild ones are tiny compared to commercial ones...about the size of a pencil eraser.
If I'm lucky and get there early, I can collect the little wild (pink) plums that grow in many farm fence lines around here.  They make wonderful jelly too.

Figs make great preserves if you like figs....I don't care for them.
We have a u-pick peach orchard down the road from us...and if you want to fight cutting those off the seeds (NOT freestone) they are great for all kinds of jelly/preserves, pies, cobblers and other baking as well as fruit salads.

Did ya'al know you can make peach jelly from peach peels??  Have a friend in Tn. who told me how....put peels in a pan, barely cover with water & cook till clear.  Strain the "juice" and use it in the sure-jell apple jelly recipe that comes in the box of sure-jell.  Pretty easy.

[donnafreedman]

Erin Huffstetler of My Frugal Home says they taste like blackberries but are sweeter. So could you use them in cobblers and jams and pies and muffins?

In this article she shared a clever way of harvesting them from tall trees:

www.myfrugalhome.com/how-to-harvest-mulberries/

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Aug 14, 2016 3:59:10 GMT -5 donnafreedman said:

Erin Huffstetler of My Frugal Home says they taste like blackberries but are sweeter. So could you use them in cobblers and jams and pies and muffins?

In this article she shared a clever way of harvesting them from tall trees:

www.myfrugalhome.com/how-to-harvest-mulberries/

(GRG curtsies, and then waves like the zealous groupie that she is). Hi, Donna Freedman!!!!  Sit and stay a while with us!!!   

[donnafreedman]

@grg: Hello yourself! It's been ages since I posted here.   Sorry 'bout that.

Wish we had mulberries here, but it's a challenge to grow tree fruit in this part of the state. We did put in two apple trees this year and are hoping for the best -- and that we can keep the moose from chewing them down to the ground.

Picked the heck out of raspberries this year, though. Bumper crop! Our strawberries did well, too.

Apparently wild blueberries are doing great but I haven't made it to any picking places. May or may not get lowbush cranberries, aka lingonberries.

Just posted something about the flavors of the season over at my personal website. (Hint: Pickled beets and Black Prince tomatoes are involved.)

[CCL]

Yes I think the are most similar to blackberries. They will stain your feet if you step on them.

[Anne_in_VA]

They stain everything they come in contact with.  Ask me how I know!

[kadee79]

Aug 15, 2016 14:19:16 GMT -5 Anne_in_VA said:

They stain everything they come in contact with.  Ask me how I know!

And the birds poop purple while eating the berries too! If you track in what you have stepped on outside, it also stains carpet! My brother & sil used to have a tree right at their front door of one house they owned. We used the back door when the tree had berries.

[Tiny]

Jan 31, 2017 9:31:58 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

Aug 15, 2016 14:19:16 GMT -5 Anne_in_VA said:

They stain everything they come in contact with.  Ask me how I know!

And the birds poop purple while eating the berries too! If you track in what you have stepped on outside, it also stains carpet! My brother & sil used to have a tree right at their front door of one house they owned. We used the back door when the tree had berries.

Hence me calling the tree and all of it's spawn WEEDS!!!!       It was messy and the birds had field days with it last Aug/September.

I did jump the fence and cut back some of the lower branches that were invading my yard late in the fall.  So, hopefully it will be a bit less awful in my yard in 2017.   

I'm prepared for next fall (to again jump the fence and collect mulberries!)  - I'll collect 'em and freeze them as they come along. 

I'm currently at war with a couple of other Weed Trees:    2 are growing into my chain link fence and another is coming up between our houses (which as it's an urban area - are about 20 feet apart... I don't think that's a good place for one of these Trees...)

[weltschmerz]

Jun 28, 2016 17:24:29 GMT -5 Anne_in_VA said:

We had a mulberry tree that we had to cut down.  We used to just eat them fresh or on cereal like any other berry, although I made jelly once with them.  I never got too many of them because the birds would get there before me.

We just got a fig tree that's loaded with figs.  Anyone have any good recipes for figs?

Oh, I love fresh figs! They're really expensive up here.

[alabamagal]

We used to take the kids and pick blackberries in the summer. We had a few wild spots near our house in Georgia that we would pick them. My son was always amazed by the "free food".

Our family vacation is in August in Miami. That is mango season. My parents have a small tree and plenty of friends with large trees. Mango trees give off a large number of mangos in a short time period so if you have a tree so everyone is always giving them away. We always bring home a box full and freeze some. If you have ever had tree ripened mangos, they are 10 times better than the ones you buy in the store.

[haapai]

I used to love eating mulberries right from the tree, often while seated in the tree, but I can't give you any good recipes or suggestions as to what to do with them.  I think that I was in love with being able to feed myself on something wild.  Now that I am older, I find mulberries kinda insipid.  They're watery and oversweet.  They ripen unevenly and some varieties retain the stem when you pick them. 

My advice to you would be to cultivate something that you actually like and hope that your neighbor's yard changes management some time soon.  If your neighbor is letting their yard go to pot, who is going to complain about your scruffy blueberry bushes or oddly-placed rhubarb?  This is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to experiment with odd and unattractive horticulture, especially the type that takes years to bear any kind of fruit.  Think gooseberries, hardy kiwi, quince, figs, silly stunted peaches, or pawpaw. 

And when your neighbor's yard gets cleaned up, you can cut down most of this scruffy, unsuccessful stuff and call it good. 

Alternatively, you could cultivate something completely decorative and invasive prolific that will grow well where the mulberries grow now.  The idea here is to have plenty of starts to offer your neighbor, or new neighbor, when they finally cut down the $%#@ mulberries.