A friend of the family gave us some mulberry plants a year or so ago. They were less than 18 inches tall and haphazardly tossed in pots. We planted them along the fence and figured they would die soon enough.
Mulberry Bushes Turning into Mulberry Trees
The mulberries are now 20 feet tall and their bases are more than three inches in diameter. Best of all, they are covered in mulberries…
Each time we go out in the backyard to check on the garden, we pick the black, ripe mulberries. This inevitably leads to a family with stained hands and full bellies. There are so many mulberries I keep thinking that we will try canning mulberries but they never make it to the kitchen without being consumed.
What Variety of Mulberry Do We Have?
I’m going to guess we have black mulberry trees. According to this web page about all things mulberry, the black mulberry only grows to about 30 feet tall. The red and white mulberry trees can grow to 80 feet tall. Given that ours are about full grown and just 20 feet tall, I think they are black mulberries.
The black mulberry, while smallest of the varieties, is the longest-lived. A black mulberry will produce fruit for hundreds of years while red mulberry rarely makes it 75 years.
Mulberry Wine?
Hmm… A few web sites recommend brewing mulberry wine. I hate wine but it might be fun to try making wine from my very own muberries. Anyone tried that?
—Farmer Matt
What do they taste like? Can you buy them in stores?
I have a 5 gallon fermenter you can borrow to make the wine. I’ve used it to make beer and mead, but I’m sure it would work fine for wine too.
They are sweet. I have never seen them in stores. They seem to delicate to package.
You’re welcome to stop by the backyard and pick all you care to eat. There seems to be a never ending supply this season. Get them before the birds or the kid gets to them.
I’ve got a long way to go before I attempt wine but I’ll remember you have the hardware. Thanks! My buddy in Orlando used to make his own beer. It was pretty good drinking but I enjoyed the smell while it was brewing even better.
—Farmer Matt
George,
If you don’t want to journey all the way to Farmer Matt’s, we have a row of mulberry bushes planted along our east wall.
You’re welcome to come by and grab a sample. We have so many they’re falling off on the ground wasted.
I have a picture request. If Malcolm’s mouth, hands and feet get as purple as my fingers do when I pick mulberries, then I want a picture of his little face and everything below it. I have a vision of what he would look like. It makes me smile.
By the way, I picked and ate a quart of mulberries on Monday (May not eat that many at one time again. ha!), and another pint this morning. I love harvesting!!
I’m looking forward to my own garden in the fall.
The bushes in our back yard are equally prolific. I’m not crazy about them, but your mother has permanent purple hands from munching on them.
We looked out the window the other day and saw we had help harvesting ours. There was a huge possum snurfling them up.
The other day I hauled a ladder out so Malcolm could reach the higher branches. Just as he started to climb up, I noticed it shifting a little, so I said, “I’d better hold this for you.”
He looked at me with those four-year-old’s eyes and said, solemnly, “Yes, it’s not stable.”
I don’t know about the ladder, but you could have knocked me over at the way he said it
Does anyone know where I can buy a mulberry in Florida?