Learnt something about mulberries

[farendwoman]

Have a 25 foot tall mulberry tree in my garden which, every year, is laden with thousands of mulberries.
i would guess a couple of hundred pounds.
we’ve never had a picking, because as soon as the white berries start to show a tiny bit of pink, the birds come and nab them.
so greedy - I feed them all year round, but still they won’t let me have any mulberries.
yesterday I picked about 30 pinkish white berries from the lowest branches. No idea why I did that.
Anyway I left them in the kitchen overnight, and this morning they were beautiful black berries!!!
so thrilled about this.
i have made blackberry and balsamic chutney previously and am going to have a go with using mulberries instead.
No chance that we can get to even halfway up the tree, so the birds will still do ok.
but the reachable branches will hopefully give us some lovely chutney.
WHY didn’t I know this before.
But better late than never.

[burnie]

I don't think I have seen or eaten one, good luck with your crop.

[Nicos]

What a fantastic tree to have!
Sounds like it's quite old?p from the size of it?

Funnily enough I'd never eaten one either before this year when I spotted a few packets of dried ones in a local shop and decided to try some.
They are really lovely !
Lucky you

[Jungle Jane]

That’s good,you’ll be able to do this every year & enjoy experimenting with them. I wonder if the birds are thinking that lady’s finally interested in the fruit

[farendwoman]

What a fantastic tree to have!
Sounds like it's quite old?p from the size of it?

Funnily enough I'd never eaten one either before this year when I spotted a few packets of dried ones in a local shop and decided to try some.
They are really lovely !
Lucky you

It is pretty old yes.
I had it as a little thing (2and a half foot) and kept it in an old metal waste paper bin fir about ten years.
of course it sulked and never did anything.
when I moved to our current home seventeen years ago, I decided to put it in the boundary/hedge.
it took off immediately and is huge now.
makes me feel guilty about keeping the poor thing in the waste paper bin for so long.
I’ll have a go at drying some. To be honest I don’t think they’ve got much flavour at all as a a fresh berry.
not a patch on a blackberry or black currant.
anyway I’ve destalked 880 grams of them today, But it’s too hot to stand over a pot of bubbling chutney.
theyll have to sit in the freezer for a while!

[ameno]

To be honest I don’t think they’ve got much flavour at all as a a fresh berry.
not a patch on a blackberry or black currant.

If that's the case then, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but what you have may well not be a black mulberry.
Black mulberries are fruity, rich and delicious.
White mulberries (which ripen to dark red, despite the name) and red mulberries, on the other hand, are different (although closely related) species, and the fruit are rather bland even when fully ripe.

[Jungle Jane]

Do you think the flavour will improve if they were more ripe,would they go a bit darker maybe try putting one or two on an east facing windowsill where it’s morning sun rather than heatwave sun?

[farendwoman]

If that's the case then, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but what you have may well not be a black mulberry.
Black mulberries are fruity, rich and delicious.
White mulberries (which ripen to dark red, despite the name) and red mulberries, on the other hand, are different (although closely related) species, and the fruit are rather bland even when fully ripe.

I reckon I’ve got the bland ones then.
They’re sweet enough but no definite flavour.
Good enough for jam or chutney though.

[DannyK]

I cut down a fair sized Illinouis Everbearing as the quality of the prolific fruit was poor. What I didn't realize they were keeping the birds off the more desirable fruit.

Am now growing one called Wellington

[mothhawk]

I reckon I’ve got the bland ones then.
They’re sweet enough but no definite flavour.
Good enough for jam or chutney though.

On the bright side, you could start your own silk farm as it's the leaves of white mulberry the larvae eat.....

[Snadger]

I have tasted mulberries at different stages and found that the ones that were just about at the stage of being rotten, were the sweetest and tastiest ones.