MAKING USE OF THE MULBERRY
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Morus species
FAMILY: FAMILY: Moraceae
One tree which is taken for granted in our orchard is the Mulberry.
Lately I have been looking after the Mulberry and enjoying the fruits of my labour.
Last September, I gathered boxes of fruit and made the fruit into jam and a refreshing mulberry drink. The birds, especially starlings feast on the fruit and usually we only pick a handful of fruit. Last Spring, that is when the mulberry is in full fruit, I took the time to cover the fruit with bags. I acquired several onion and orange bags, cut one section out of each bottom of the bags and fastened with a peg. I slipped the bag over laden branches and then secured by tying with a string. Every second day during ripening of the fruit I held a box at the end of each covered branch, took off the peg, tapped the branch and all the ripe fruit fell into the bag. I then shook the bag till all the fruit emptied into the box.
It is better not to put too many mulberries to a box as they tend to squash. Squashed fruit is okay for jam though.
My recipe for making mulberry jam is: boil fruit for ½ hour (no water needed) stirring occasionally. Then take off stove. Measure one cup of sugar to one cup of pulp, add 2 teaspoons of vinegar to each 1 cup of fruit plus sugar mixture.
Put on stove and boil and stir for ½ hour. Put into hot, sterilised jars (the vinegar helps it to set and stops mould).
I also made a fresh drink with the mulberries. Place a colander over a bowl. Add mulberries and squash fruit with a jar until all juice is gone and strained into bowl. Add 50% water to juice, 5% sugar syrup, and 4% lime juice. Serve cold or freeze for later use.
One thing about using mulberries is that your hands turn purple. I tried everything to remove the stain. I remembered I kept an article from 1977 from "Your Garden" magazine and there it was - the answer. Use the juice of green mulberries to remove stains on hands etc. I collected some green mulberries, rubbed the juice into my hands and instantly the stains disappeared. (Nature is sure fascinating.)
The mulberry, according to "Your Garden" originates from Persia, now Iran. It is related to the fig and breadfruit and is of the Moraceae family.
For pruning, it is only necessary to thin crowded wood and cut back by half any long spindly branches.
Once we had a mulberry tree and cropped it back 5 ft from the ground. It died! So it is important to keep lots of leaves on the tree.
The mulberry is hardy, but loves to be fed with mulch and fertilizer, organic or artificial. Just a bit more attention to the mulberry can make it a very rewarding tree in your home garden.
DATE: March 1995
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