Today after work I went out mulberry picking in my neighborhood and down by Sligo Creek. I got a lot of berries, as you can see. I was very surprised that I only ran into one other person who seemed to have a penchant for mulberries. Most people did not even seem to know they were edible. More then one person stopped me to ask if they were OK to eat and expressed interest when I said yes, but didn't try them. The one really neat guy I ran into was an older Indian gentleman who was parking near where I was picking and came over to sample the goods. I struck up a conversation with him and it turns out he was from Bombay but had lived in many different places. He let me in on a little mulberry secret: the sweetest kind are the less common white or light purple variety. I had found a tree like this today in Baltimore, and succeeded in locating another one while on my evening run in Sligo Creek.
I have to say, I think it is a bit sad that so many Washingtonians literally walk over the heaps of mulberries on the sidewalk but don't eat any. It is a bit like having a nest in your front yard and not noticing. I guess there are plenty of things I've missed out on in life with my narrow focus on birds and academics, but I'm trying to make up for it now. When people in the house tease me about being social, I just joke that I worked every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night for two years so I have a lot of socializing to make up for this summer. Usually they laugh, sometimes they look at me like I'm crazy.
So what did I do with all those mulberries? I used up the first container tonight, making a mulberry smoothie. 4 parts mulberries to 1 part soy milk with a few cubes of ice. Tasty. Not too sweet, a little tangy.
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