Apologies for the dearth of postings! It's been a busy week. And, I'm moving tomorrow because my friends are coming back to Jerusalem after 7 weeks away. It's been great housesitting, but I'm so glad they will be back!
All around the mulberry bush the monkey chased the weasel...
In Israel, mulberries grow on trees rather than bushes. The trees are tall and the fruit is often difficult to reach.
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| Looking up at mulberries |
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| More ripe fruit, just out of reach |
Closer up -- here's how the fruit looks on the tree. There are at least two varieties of mulberry in Jerusalem -- one has white fruits the other are red. (There is a black mulberry as well, but I haven't met it yet.) On the day of this fruit mission, we didn't get close up to any red mulberries.
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| Mulberries in situ |
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| More white mulberries |
The mulberry looks a bit like an elongated blackberry or raspberry, but more cylindrical. It doesn't have any seeds on the outside, but it has a long centre pithy bit that you can chew through or toss.
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| A white not-quite-ripe mulberry |
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| A pair of perfectly ripe white mulberries -- just turning light pink |
As for the taste...Well, I am a bit of a berry lover and I can tell you the mulberry is not in my top 5 berries of the world. I wouldn't sit down to a bowl of raw mulberries with the same kind of
delight I would reserve for a bowl of freshly picked blackberries or
blueberries. The mulberry (both red and white) has a unique taste and it's a bit mealy. I've been told it makes excellent jam and I'm inclined to believe that the mulberry is best eaten cooked (pies, jam) or fermented (wine).
Fortunately, mulberries -- if not the berries, then the leaves -- have one devoted species: the silkworm. According to our favourite reference (Wikipedia!) mulberry leaves are the sole food of silkworms. Talk about picky eaters!
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