Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Mulberries

My brother and I I got my mom a food dehydrator last Christmas.  Now that fruits are starting to come in, she is experimenting with it and learning how to use it.  One of the biggest successes was something that she had never planned on or thought about drying: mulberries.

We have several mulberry trees in your yard.  They came with the house.  Aside from taking out nests of tent caterpillars, we don't do anything to maintain them.  I will sometimes eat the mulberries when they are fresh, but nobody else likes them.  So all the fruit simply serves to feed a massive flock of cedar waxwings.

But when my mom saw the birds feasting on the fruit, she decided to pick some and dry them.  It worked out really well.  Mulberries are very easy to pick and dry, and when dried they have a great taste and texture.  They are also a really healthy fruit.  So I am now picking all that I can, and drying them.

I've never seen mulberries, fresh or dried, for sale anywhere.  This is probably because they are difficult to store and transport.  I'm sure that there are hundreds of great foods that never appear in supermarkets because of things that have nothing do do with taste or nutritional value.

2 comments:

E said...

mulberries are edible?? Cool. They have seeds, yes? Do you remove them before drying?

I remember being so fascinated when I saw quinces for the first time in a little market in PA. I bought one, and didn't realize it had to be allowed to ripen and then cooked before eating. I waited for it to ripen, and then forgot it when I went back home. So, I still haven't tasted a quince. :/ Probably not much call for this forgotten fruit in general stores either due to the need to pre-cook them.

Alleged Wisdom said...

There are several types of mulberries, and almost all of them are edible. They are usually like blackberries; they start green, then turn red, and when they are black they are ripe and ready to eat. There are a couple types that are different.

The seeds are tiny, just like in blackberries. There is no need to remove them, and it would be almost impossible to do so.

I'd never heard of quinces. I looked them up; they have quite a history. But the human race has apparently moved on to other, more convenient, things.