mulberries

[asakiyume]

The two berries I used to pick and eat as a kid were mulberries and black raspberries (a different fruit from blackberries--we had no blackberries where I grew up but plenty of black raspberries). Black raspberries grow on prickly canes, and you can find them in abandoned lots and beside railroad tracks. I was a pro at finding places to pick them.

Mulberries grow on trees. When I was a kid, there was a copse of three or so sapling-sized mulberry trees on my street, at the edge of someone's property, and we used to walk by them and pick the berries off. Not as flavorful as black raspberries, but pleasantly sweet.

Now all but one of those mulberry trees is gone, but that one tree! It's huge. The berries are waaaay up high, out of reach, but I saw a mourning dove enjoying them. And they fall from those high, high branches down to the street.

grand mulberry tree



mulberries



These berries, though, come from a different tree, across the way. You can see below that the berries on this tree are more in reach ;-) (I don't recall this tree from when I was a kid--I think we just preferred being on the other side of the street for our collecting.)

the tree across the way

Comments

[rebeccmeister]

Part of our routine in the mornings when we go rowing is to clean off our docks of all of the accumulated goose poop. It's always funny when we reach mulberry season - the poop goes from green to purple!

My partner S loves them. I think I may have found a good tree where he can pick them the next time he's in town during mullberry season.

One of these days, in my copious free time (ha!), I'd love to go pick black raspberries. From what I understand, there's a bunch along the bike path between Albany and Delmar. In the meantime I have some red raspberries in my small backyard garden plot. Yum!

[asakiyume]

Albany and Delmar! Wait--have we talked about this?! Delmar is where I grew up! I was on that bike path just this weekend! (well actually, the one from New Scotland to Delmar)

[rebeccmeister]

We haven't yet! I should note - I friended you after reading in mallorys_camera's blog, the word "Delmar" (uttered in the same breath as sour cherry picking - yum!). I moved to a house near Albany Med 5 years ago, to work at Siena. I tend to be more booked up than I should be with IRL humans, so I haven't even crossed paths with P yet, but in the meantime it's always great to hear about local adventures from others. :^)

[asakiyume]

*two thumbs up*

I 100% know what you mean about being booked up IRL--and reading other people's journals is a great way of being friendly that doesn't require that same level of time commitment.