Time to Look for Mulberries

My friend Monica, from near Sadieville, Kentucky, and I stopped at the Capitol View Park, in Frankfort, Kentucky, after an afternoon drive in the country. We followed a hiking path down to the Kentucky River, that borders the western edge of the park, where we watched teens and children enjoying a swimming spot along the banks. They were swinging from a rope swing and climbing a large branch of one the large trees on the rivers edge to jump around 15 to 20 feet into the murky, muddy colored waters.

On our way Monica noticed a spot along the trail that was covered with squished black berries, that made us both look up to see branches covered with delicious mulberries. I didn't know until now mulberries are pretty common in the Midwest. The last place I found one, with berries, was on a hike in the Great Marsh Trail located, in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, about a year ago. Before that, I had occasionally seen one or two here and there in Austin, Texas, where I lived most of my life. When I was growing up in the small town of Hobson, Texas, we had a mulberry tree in our front yard. I rarely ate them and most people considered them a nuisance because they would make a mess on your front lawn and stain your sidewalk with its dark black, staining berries. I remember nibbling on a few from time to time and noticed you could only enjoy this sweet gift from nature during the narrow ripening time period of about one week and they would be gone. Seems some birds would at least enjoy them. Weird how we rejected eating anything that was not grown in our garden or bought at the grocery store in those days, even though we were surrounded by nature living in a small country community. I don't think my parents planted that tree, it just sprang up one day and grew big and tall very fast. Not sure if the tree died or my father cut it down, since I heard him not liking it very much.

I am fascinated by the wonderful nutritious food that one can gather in the wild, so it was so delightful to taste this delicious fruit again. We knew if we saw one tree that there must be more to be found in this rather large tree covered park. It is best to look for the mulberry around the edges of thickly treed forests, near the meadows, where the trees will be getting the most sun. On our hike we found several and most were large older trees with branches that were mostly out of our reach. The branches were loaded though on the ones we could reach and we gathered enough to make us happy for the next several days. They don't keep long in the refrigerator, maybe at most 5 or 6 days. They can be stored for use later by freezing them. Make sure you freeze them first by keeping them separated so they won't stick together and then can be stored together. Also, they can be dried to preserve them for later use.

I use them in smoothies or add them to my morning cereal or oatmeal. Remember the window of opportunity for finding these tasty treats are only for about 2 weeks and more than likely most are ripening now, until maybe the middle of June, in Kentucky and Indiana.

They are also contain several phytonutrients, along with a long list of beneficial nutrients, the largest amounts being vitamin C and iron.

I'm looking forward to the many berries and tree fruits that are ripening in the month of June and early July. I'll keep you posted on what I find in the coming weeks on my travels through Indiana and Michigan and maybe Wisconsin.