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

[queenoftheskies]

We used to pick regular blackberries at the park when I was a kid, but OMG, the chiggers were awful around those bushes.

My grandparents had gooseberries. Have you ever had those?

[asakiyume]

I had gooseberries when we lived in England! And in my yard I have red currants, which are in the gooseberry family.

[wayfaringwordhack]

The kids and I were just out gorging ourselves on gooseberries, with a few black currants and tayberries thrown in for good measure. We have red and white currants, too. I planted a mulberry tree here that gave its first fruit this year (well, two at the same time, but the one in the field is behind because it is a poor abandoned baby. :P). I also dug up a mulberry sapling in our yard in Lebanon and brought it here. Had to give it a good whack to make it fit in my suitcase, but it is taking off!

[asakiyume]

I'm so amazed you were just able to bring live agricultural material over like that! The French aren't worried about invasive species or pests or things? Maybe because France already has mulberries?

I brought a tiny packet of fresh chile peppers back from Colombia and had to promise to eat them to let them pass. (But now I've saved and planted the seeds muahhahaahahaha so when American agriculture goes under due to an Amazonian pest, you can thank me)

[wayfaringwordhack]

The expression in French that applies here is: Ni vu, ni connu (not seen, not known).

They asked no questions, so I told no lies. ;)

Bwhahaha. You are a spicy rebel!

[asakiyume]

Also, wow, just looked up chiggers, and they sound awful!