Black Mulberry (Morus nigra)

[samvara]

I can remember being about three and standing under one eating berries with my mother. All through summer, while growing up, my brothers and I would visit local Mulberry trees then come home sticky, purple and content. The second last place I rented had one leaning over our back fence and for as long as there was fruit I would stand under it whenever I could.

They take me back to memories of warm, dappled light, dark purple stains on my fingers and feet, skin scraped off on rough bark, adventures with my brothers, the smell of the leaves and the taste the fruit.

Now that I own a house it's not a question of *if*, or even *when*, it's a question of where to get one and where exactly to plant it.

Some eight telephone calls later and a lot of people saying: "Oh you can't get those / we don't stock those / haven't seen them for a while / might get some in later" I found a place with exactly the species I want which also happened to be closer than any other store I called.

I am ridiculously pleased.

Comments

[bannie.livejournal.com]

Ooh yum! I love mulberries. A couple of years ago one of my friends had a few really prolific trees and I was gathering hundreds of them each week and living on mulberry crumble for dessert. Was delicious!

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

You have a recipe for mulberry crumble?

Share?

Went and looked at possible planting locations today ;-)

[bannie.livejournal.com]

No, I don't have one specifically for mulberry crumble. I just used the recipe I had for apple crumble but put mulberries in instead of apples. Was quite nice. Would you like it or have you got an apple crumble recipe?

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I'd love it, my last crumble was a bit not right and I was meaning to find a better recipe.

[looks hopeful]

[bannie.livejournal.com]

Okay, lol. Well this one is very simple and the reason is that it's from a PKU recipe book. Basically that means it's a low-protein recipe, but I've adapted it to make it 'normal'. By that I mean I've just replaced my special PKU low protein flour with normal plain flour. Everything else is the same. I don't know if it's traditional or 'correct' or whatever, but my husband loved it! :D

Ingredients:
500g cooking apples (or mulberries or whatever fruit takes your fancy)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I usually ignore the 1/2 tsp measurement and put a bit in with the apples and a bit in with the crumble mixture, lol)
75ml water
90g plain flour
45g butter/margarine (whichever you prefer)
60g brown sugar (I haven't had any lately but I've had heaps of white and it works just as well)
30g raisins or sultanas

Method:
Peel and core apples (or wash and de-stem mulberries) and slice thinly into a baking dish. Sprinkle with the cinammon. Add raisins or sultanas if desired. Spoon over the water.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and sugar, rubbing in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (I like to add cinnamon here too). Sprinkle this over the fruit. Bake in the oven at 400F/200C/Gas mark 6 until golden and the apples/other fruit are tender, for 30 minutes. SERVES 4.

Enjoy!!

Mmm, I think I'll make some tonight! :D