Mulberries

sawyer04 said:

Makes for a nice paint job on a white car too.

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Which leads to the demise of many a Mulberry tree!

There was a mulberry tree in my grandfather's yard when I was a kid. I don't ever remember it having berries though. We didn't miss them because there were Bartlett pear trees, fig trees,cherry trees, apple trees, and plum trees,

One time when I was a kid, we had a bumper crop in a big tree on the farm. We usually had a lot, but that year there were many and big too. Mom decide to put up a whole bunch as jelly. For some reason they didn't jell and just turned into syrup. They didn't go to waste though. We gobbled the syrup up on ice cream. It was especially good on homemade vanilla ice cream.

Have heard Mulberry well spoken of for smoking meat, look forward to trying a batch.

ppg1949 said:

When I lived in the country twenty five years ago, our rear fence line bordered a farm field. The fence line had a tree every few feet, probably about thirty or more trees. There were five or six mulberries. But one of the trees had white almost translucent mulberries. I've never seen white mulberries before or since. I'm guessing it was some kind of genetic defect. But the white berries were much sweeter than the purple ones. Anyone else ever see white mulberries?

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ppg,

On our farm we had a wonderful little white mulberry tree behind the garage. It produced the biggest, sweetest mulberries I’ve ever seen. They were almost as big as your thumb and had a flavor that was a mixture of mulberry and strawberry. If I had any sense I’d have started growing offshoots of that tree commercially. In the winter of ‘83 we had a late severe cold snap where the temp dropped to -36F. Early that morning you could hear trees popping like rifle shots. Killed hundreds of trees, most of the mulberries and apple and walnut trees.

I had a big mulberry next to the drive, where I used to live. Branches grew out overhanging the sidewalk every year, but I waited to cut them back until after the berries were done ripening. Neighbors never complained about "obstructing" the sidewalk; the kids would pick them on the way past from school.
Mulberries make a fine mead flavoring.

I do like mulberries. Actually my first experience with mulberries was while on vacation in Massachusetts, I saw the berries first all over the sidewalk and look up into the tree. Wow! I thought, I've never seen a blackberry bush so big! Lol after a little investigation found out it was a Mulberry tree. I had been on the search for such a tree back in my home state of Michigan. Low and behold! My son has one, I'm in heaven! Lol

ppg1949 said:

But the white berries were much sweeter than the purple ones. Anyone else ever see white mulberries?

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Yes, ppg, I have a tree such as you describe in a sheltered and somewhat shaded location. The berries are indeed incredibly sweet.

don't know how many different types of the mulberry trees there are but when I was young back in 57 we had a very large mulberry tree in a small patch of woods down the street. those berries were at least 1 1/8th inches long with a girth like your little finger. we collected quite a bit off the tree and one thing I noticed there weren't any birds eating all of them. my neighbor has a short mulberry tree that grew up in the fence row and it has very small berries, the birds eat every one of them while they are green.

bud in pa said:

There was a mulberry tree in my grandfather's yard when I was a kid. I don't ever remember it having berries though. We didn't miss them because there were Bartlett pear trees, fig trees,cherry trees, apple trees, and plum trees,

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Fruitless Mulberry trees are popular in some parts of the country as a fast growing shade tree without the mess of stuff like getting your car painted purple. Their pollen can be very intense though, and quite bad on those allergic, and they have been banned in some locals for that reason.

Unfortunately I have never had any fruiting Mulberry trees around where I have lived, only the fruitless kind. Around where I live now is to far north for them.

We had one on the corner of our yard when I was a kid. I liked the berries but dad didn't like the purple coloring on out white car. It took him several years to kill it dead.

We had them growing wild around the house where I grew up. Our dogs loved to graze on them, but the purple bird poop was pretty annoying.

Hadn't heard of the fruitless variety, but have seen three around here, purple, black and white. Purple is sweetest. Black fruit is smaller, maybe purple on an immature tree. The white aren't very good eating, but a friend flavored a good mead with them.

There are allot of the fruitless variety out west. In Vegas they are illegal to plant new trees because the pollen in the spring causes breathing problems for the elderly and other people with breathing problems. They grow like a weed and will grow wild all over.

Mulberry trees also grow like weeds here in Phoenix but they only last maybe 7-10 years before they die.
While they are growing though, they can provide a lot of shade, fast.
In Maricopa County where I live, it is illegal to plant a female tree because, like mooman76 says, the pollen can cause breathing problems for some people.

Back when I was a kid, the female trees were permitted and many times I stuffed mulberry's by the handful into my mouth. I don't remember them having much flavor but they were sweet and that was good enough for me.

Mulberries are an interesting sexually confused bunch. Some individuals are male (pollen) only, with no fruit. Some are female only and depend on the pollen producing plant next door to start fruit production. Some have flowers with both stamens (pollen) and pistols (eggs) and can go it alone but usually depend on some insect thing to tickle the magic parts. If you want to be sure what you'r getting a new plant has to be propagated from cuttings not seeds.

In Ohio they are considered a pest tree. They are literally everywhere.. I used to have probably 15-20 at my old house. Wife and I moved 3 years ago and have a few on my new property including a white mulberry, which I like very much. Wife makes mulberry pie, jam And a cobbler of sorts. I’d love to try some mulberry wine...but I’ve not seen any for sale and don’t have the patience to make my own.

Last time i ate any i was a lil kid. My grandparents had one in the back yard. I would climb the tree just to pick’m and eat’m. Loved them berries. The tree also provided a shady spot on them hot summer days!