It's a shame that more people don't know about all the great food that is out there, just waiting to be harvested. Here in the US, so many people think that mulberries (Morus spp.) are poison, and they are delicious! If you harvest any more Aronia, dry them, or use them for cooking, I'd love to see that. Happy foraging!
Mulberry trees are my favorite, my childhood was spent raiding trees for berries. When I did so as an adult in Cleveland, I had my elderly neighbor running out to tell me they're poison, not to eat them. I knew better, but he about shit himself when I popped a handful into my mouth.
I used these same "poisonous" berries to make jam that John later sold to work friends, including rock stars, in the music business.
Thanks for your story. I've experienced that too -- just crazy, isn't it? I wonder how that myth got started. Mulberry leaves are even good to eat in the springtime, when they are young and tender. They are a great tree! And that's great about you making jam and selling it. :D
I think it has to do with mulberries producing a toxic substance that is also halucingenic. It is mainly a problem with the stems and unripe fruit from my understanding.
It's funny how people get scared of a fruit that isn't good to eat if it's not ripe. Just wait until it's ripe, lol. I've eaten a lot of stems in mulberry pie, but I've never had any issues. And I eat the young leaves, raw, in salads, in addition to cooking them as greens. There's plenty of cultural tradition for both. But I could see the older leaves being a problem and unripe fruit. But that shouldn't make people avoid mulberries. Oh well, more for us - and the birds and other wildlife.
From my understanding our culture pushes the idea of avoiding anything halucingenic so I would assume it has to do with that rather than the posinous nature of it. Cooking breaks the compound down from my understanding becuase you use unripe berries and stems to add more pectin when making jam.
We've got a crazy culture in some ways, don't we? Watch out for that mulberry! :O lol
lol yeah I have had people come up to me while picking them( eating some as I pick) and say" you can't eat those they are posinous". When I said no I have eaten them many times, they just shook there head and went on their way believing the same they always had and thinking of me as crazy or stupid.
Thank you, @haphazard-hstead! I will surely be doing more foraging and reporting here on Steemit.
I'm looking forward to your posts. Here are the guidelines for having foraging posts get curated for the SteemTrail @foraging-trail, too: one and two.