These gorgeous thin-skinned berries are highly putrescible, and so the chances are you’ve probably seen them dried rather fresh. Read on to learn more about mulberries, and what you can do with them.
What Is a Mulberry?
Mulberries come from a diverse species of trees falling in the genus Morus of the Moraceae family. They’re often confused with blackberries due to their similar appearance and taste. Mulberries, however, are elongated in shape, while blackberries are rounder, shinier, and shorter.
Mulberry comes in various varieties, but there are three types that are the most common: white, red, and black. White Mulberry is native to South Asia, red to the United States, while the black mulberry originates from Western Asia. Mulberry trees are quick-growing and thrive in temperate climates.
Mulberry leaves are of great importance to the silk industry, as the silkworms only consume mulberry leaves. For silkworm harvesting, thousands of mulberry trees are commercially grown all around the world. Intriguingly, it’s quite an ancient practice, as shown from the historical records dating back to 220 AD when the Greeks and Romans would wear silk gowns and other silk apparel.
Mulberry trees produce multiple fruits. When a number of fruiting flowers produce fruits that are merged together into a single mass; in this case, the tiny, soft, incredibly sweet, and juicy spheres cling together to form the marvelous mulberry fruits.
What Do Mulberries Taste Like?
Mulberries are refreshing, sweet, and somewhat tangy in flavor. While the white mulberry is considered the sweetest variety with little to no tartness, the red, and black mulberries offer a balanced sweet-tangy flavor. The texture of a mature mulberry is quite pleasing to the palate owing to its tiny clustered spheres that are plump, juicy, and succulent. The mulberry fruit pops in the mouth just like a blackberry.
What To Do With Mulberries?
While fresh mulberries are the most delicious when eaten by hand, you can also cook them into a number of desserts, jams, and sauces. Mulberry pie, of course, comes at the top of our list! Or you can get creative by adding mulberries to our recipes for Summer Berry Crumble and Breakfast Berry Trifle. Mulberry muffins and cobblers are other great ways of utilizing this refreshing and healthy fruit.
Dried mulberries, on the other hand, are sweeter, gummier, and fig-like in taste. Sun-dried mulberries are often used in granola bars, smoothies, muesli, breakfast oatmeals, and as a topping over fresh yogurt. If you’re looking for a healthy breakfast recipe, try out our Ricotta and Honey Oatmeal with fresh or dried mulberries on top.
Mulberry drinks like smoothies, squash, and wine are quite popular as well. Besides, you can always make mulberry popsicles, mulberry ice cream, and frozen mulberry yogurt on the go.
Feature Image: Sittichok Glomvinya from Pixabay
