Quiet Site, Mulberry Tree
I have recently started a new quiet site called Carver Cards in case anyone is interested in seeing some of my photographs without all my chit chat. I chose the name Carver Cards because each post is like a post card with one photograph. I will probably keep it wordless although I may occasionally have a phrase or two, along the lines of what you might see in a card. For some time I've considered cleaning up this site because I feel like it's pretty cluttered and all over the place but then again so am I. Therefore, Carver's Sight or is that Site?, will probably keep chugging along like it always has but the new site will stay quiet, unlike me.
On another topic, I grew up singing the song: Here we go round the mulberry bush, but I didn't realize there were many varieties of mulberry trees. As it turns out, I have a rather larger mulberry tree in my back garden which volunteered in a spot where I lost another tree. A few years ago, I got curious about what kind of tree it was because not only was it growing to be quite large, it also had a fruit which the birds loved. I found out it was a mulberry tree but didn't think to find out if the fruit was also edible for humans until this year.
I felt like an idiot for not checking it out sooner when I discovered that not only is the mulberry tree's fruit edible, but the variety which volunteered in my garden, and is now over 20 ft., has delicious fruit. If you click inside the shot above you can see that the branches are so laden with fruit that they are boughed down making it easier to pick more of them. That shot only shows a portion of the tree because it's tall and wide and was hard to get a good shot. The variety I have is the one where the fruit is black when it is ripe and it tastes a little bit like a very sweet grapefruit.
If you look at the first closeup of the ripe fruit you can see how the birds eat out a portion of a cluster so it's hard once it's ripe to get the fruit that hasn't been nibbled on. I'm not particularly fastidious but I prefer that the wildlife eat a whole piece of fruit and let me have a whole one to myself. Since there's way more than either I or the birds will eat, you would think they could leave me a few pieces that haven't been bitten out of. I may try picking some when they are pink like the ones above and ripen them off the tree. Botanically, the mulberry tree produces a collective fruit, not a berry, which given its name is somewhat funny to me.
On another topic, I grew up singing the song: Here we go round the mulberry bush, but I didn't realize there were many varieties of mulberry trees. As it turns out, I have a rather larger mulberry tree in my back garden which volunteered in a spot where I lost another tree. A few years ago, I got curious about what kind of tree it was because not only was it growing to be quite large, it also had a fruit which the birds loved. I found out it was a mulberry tree but didn't think to find out if the fruit was also edible for humans until this year.
I felt like an idiot for not checking it out sooner when I discovered that not only is the mulberry tree's fruit edible, but the variety which volunteered in my garden, and is now over 20 ft., has delicious fruit. If you click inside the shot above you can see that the branches are so laden with fruit that they are boughed down making it easier to pick more of them. That shot only shows a portion of the tree because it's tall and wide and was hard to get a good shot. The variety I have is the one where the fruit is black when it is ripe and it tastes a little bit like a very sweet grapefruit. 
If you look at the first closeup of the ripe fruit you can see how the birds eat out a portion of a cluster so it's hard once it's ripe to get the fruit that hasn't been nibbled on. I'm not particularly fastidious but I prefer that the wildlife eat a whole piece of fruit and let me have a whole one to myself. Since there's way more than either I or the birds will eat, you would think they could leave me a few pieces that haven't been bitten out of. I may try picking some when they are pink like the ones above and ripen them off the tree. Botanically, the mulberry tree produces a collective fruit, not a berry, which given its name is somewhat funny to me.
8 comments:
I also sang that song and had no idea what a Mulberry bush was. They must not grow in the northwest.
Hi Inland Empire girl, I found out that some varieties of the mulberry tree came from china and several do best in moderate to mild climates. I think are some adapted to longer, cold winters but the fruit isn't as good. That's from quick research so there may be some I don't know about.
Now that is very interesting...I too grew up singing that song and never really gave it much thought...it's kinda like the "ring around the rosey" but at least this one has a much better ending...your photos as always are spectacular....I will check out your new site....cheers
Hi Mary Anne,
It's funny your mentioning "ring around the rosey" because I was thinking about that recently. I didn't know for a long time what it's origin was and how sad it was. I actually think my daughter told me when she was about 9 that it was started during the bubonic plague. I'm sure everyone but me knew that but I thought it was really odd that I would learn that from my daughter when she was a child.
I only knew about 2 kinds of mulberry trees: with or without berries...Our house came with 3 mulberry trees, my husband sometimes eats the fruit but all berries ripe at once and it's kind of messy. But only for 2 weeks at the beginning of June. I know this because our son's bday is on the 12th of June and we could always set the birthday table under the trees for the kids to have some cake and refreshments, all berries were gone by then.
sadly we don't have mulberries in the Philippines.
Hi Mar, That's fun the way you can set the date for the mulberries by your son's birthday and good that they were cleared out in time for his parties. I have so many birds that feast on mine at this point that it's not as big of a mess under the tree. I must have a different variety from yours because these keep bearing a long time.
Hi DonG, It is interesting how different regions have different trees. Some of the other bloggers from your country have posted fruit that looks delicious but I've never heard of it before.
Did you know that Mulberry leaves as well as the fruits are very good for us. Lots of good nutrients in them. Check out the benefits of mulberry and you will realize that you have a piece of "treasure" in your garden! Go do a search on the benefits of the mulberry tree. I boiled the leaves and make an infusion to drink for my health benefits!
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