All Around the Mulberry Bush...

As I cleaned out weeds and briars from the edges of the yard, I found large tree branches hanging with bright berries.  After doing some internet searching, I found out they were mulberries and they were edible!  It turns out the ones in my yard are the shorter variety and turn almost black when ripe.  They are sweet and not overly flavorful.  The best thing about mulberries is how easy they are to "pick".  Grab a sheet or towel and put it down under a tree branch.  Shake the tree and watch the ripe mulberries fall onto the sheet for collecting.

 There are lots of great recipes online that use mulberries and many recipes that call for other fruits (such as blueberries) can have mulberries substituted instead.  To prep the berries, rinse them gently and pick the green stem off as short as possible.  If there is a little green stem left, it won't hurt anything.  For most recipes, you will want to put the mulberries in last and gently fold them into the mix so the berries don't get damaged.  This site contains 10 ideas for using mulberries in recipes: http://sharonglasgow.com/2013/06/mulberry-harvesting-10-ideas-of-what-to-do-with-them/

I tried this recipe and it makes a dense sweet bread.  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/150237337544633028/  I used 4 mini loaves instead of one large loaf and shortened the cooking time.

I made this recipe last year and really liked the orange hint in the flavor.  I cheated on the recipe and just used orange juice instead of squeezing a fresh orange.  http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/ubbs/archive/BREAD/Sweet_Bread_Mulberry_Bread.html

Foraging in the yard can result in tasty summer treats!