Mulberries

Hi, Marion here again, and today’s blog is about mulberries. I have to tell you that I’m slightly obsessed with them; in fact, that’s an understatement! I absolutely LOVE these gorgeous little berries.

If you haven’t tried mulberries before, you really must; they are delicious, juicy morsels that tantalise the taste buds and stain the fingers. They are around 2-3cm long, made up of little fruit clusters that have fused together to become one fruit and they are just bursting with juice.

As well as tasting amazing, mulberries have a lot of health benefits; they are iron rich and include vitamin C, vitamin K, fibre, and antioxidants. Mulberries promote heart health, assist in improving digestion and support the immune system.

We are fortunate enough to have a mulberry tree in our garden and I just cannot get enough of them; every morning I am out there, reaching up into the branches, selecting the largest, darkest, juiciest berries for our breakfast (with porridge for Dave, and with Greek yogurt and granola for me).

If I’ve disappeared, Dave knows where to find me, and when I emerge, I look like I’ve committed a murder, with deep red juice staining my hands and running down my arms. As I carefully move the foliage to pick the fruit, the slightest movement causes the ripest berries to just drop, often splatting on me before rolling to the ground. Note to self: DO NOT wear white shorts when mulberrying!

As I scurry back to the house, clutching the overflowing bowl of dark fruits, I always imagine making something with them later, but I just can’t seem to stop myself from eating them through the day. Firstly, I always give them a bath in cold salt water for about six or seven minutes, to remove any dust, kill any bacteria and flush out any bugs. Then I rinse them thoroughly in fresh cold water, and they are ready to eat.

Mulberries taste a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry and are the perfect balance of sweet and tart. Ice cold from the fridge, they are out of this world, I like to press them to my palate with my tongue and the juice just floods out as they burst. Each time I go to the fridge for something, more and more of the mulberries seem to disappear! A couple of weeks ago I made mulberry coulis, but that didn’t last long either!

Anyway, on Monday afternoon, there I was, picking mulberries again, and having stripped all the fruit from the lower branches, I was trying to reach higher into the tree for the darkest and juiciest berries. As I am only 5ft, this was presenting me with somewhat of a challenge and the berries I wanted always seemed to be just above my outstretched fingertips. How chuffed I was to see Dave, who, having just arrived home from work, was walking towards me with the Henchman steps that we use for hedge cutting. He picked loads and I managed to keep myself from eating them (well, I did have a few!) long enough to make some muffins with them for Dave’s lunches. Only when the muffins were safely in the oven did I allow myself to tuck into the rest.

Dave - Mulberry-picking

So, mulberry coulis and mulberry muffins have been made, tried, tested, and approved. Dave wants us to make mulberry gin next, so I’ve bought some Kilner jars and some gin. Next week we’ll get picking again, I’ll try my best to refrain from eating them, and we should have mulberry gin ready for drinking this Christmas.

I’ll be back soon, to let you know how it goes!