Monday 27 October 2014

IT'S MULBERRY SEASON!

Once again it is that time of the year when those who have a mulberry tree in their back yard suddenly find their fingers turning purple, stained clothes are being sent to the laundry to get the purple juice out of them and Mr.Google is kept busy trying to find multiple recipes to use up the luscious berries before they disappear again for another year.


This year I wanted to try out a few different recipes other than Mulberry Pie and I did find a couple that I thought would be tasty but I cut down on the amount of sugar in the ingredients and the results were not good as the mulberries tasted quite bland. 

As I had been waiting since September when the mulberries were...


just forming ....


...then turning red...



...and finally to purple, I was very excited when there were enough ripe ones to experiment with a few recipes. I had a couple of tries at making Linda Woodrow's Mulberry Black Forest Cupcakes from her eBook The Muesli Bar Challenge. However, as I already mentioned, I cut back on the amount of sugar in the ingredients and also replaced the flour with coconut flour and it just didn't taste all that wonderful. I should try them again using the recommended ingredients. 


I finally had success with the Mulberry Cobbler recipe from Circle B Kitchen although the finished product doesn't look quite the same as the cobbler on that site.




 Still....with a 'little' cream poured over it was very tasty and we all had our sugar hit for the day!

The next recipe to try out will be Mulberry Ice Cream from a recipe I found after doing a search for mulberry recipes on Pinterest. I have already made yoghurt for the ice cream to it will be interesting to see what it tastes like. There are heaps of recipes on Pinterest so check them out if you would like to try something different. 

On Pinterest there are links to sites where you can read about the health benefits of mulberries such as the fact that it is a 'natural cognitive enhancer and neuroprotectant' but I had a laugh at the recommendation to apply mulberry juice to grey hair as it would result in 'blacking of the hair'. :-) I think it would result in the hair turning purple...and the pillow one slept on! 

So before we know it mulberry season will be over.




Then our Jaboticaba tree will be laden with fruit as the branches were covered with flowers last week so it will be a busy time picking and preserving them. They are a bit like the mulberries as they also have a short season.

Backyard fruit trees can be a real joy to have if the birds, possums and flying foxes don't eat all the fruit. If you have a mulberry tree I would be keen to know any favourite recipes you have for using up the fruit. That is...if the fruit gets as far as the kitchen. :-)













8 comments:

  1. Our back door is now a no go zone due to walking under the mulberry tree and walking them through the house.....I have never made any thing with them as the kids eat them before I have a chance :)
    Now theres only two at home I might have enough for some Jam.
    Try to keep cool today as it hot already.
    Mandy

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    Replies
    1. Mandy, I can imagine the mulberries would be messy if they were near a door. Ours is right down the back so no problem there. I went to Warwick today and it was 38C!!! Much too hot for this time of the year. Actually much too hot for any time of the year for me as I hate the heat.

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  2. I look forward to the day of having berries growing on the fences. Could you use Stevia instead of the sugar? Strawberries are cheap this weekend so i twice pureed them with a little sugar to pour over vanilla icecream. Yum

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    Replies
    1. Lynda, we do have Stevia growing but I am not a great fan unfortunately. The leaves are so very very sweet. It didn't occur to me to add any. You do have to be careful with it as it can leave a bitter taste in the mouth. We have some strawberries growing but not a huge amount at this stage but the boysenberries, loganberries and youngberries are growing well and hopefully we will beat the birds to them for a change.

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  3. Yummy or just O.K., experimenting is still a lot of fun. You just never know how ingredients, even familiar ones, will turn out. If you are going to noodle around with chemistry, a so-so muffin is still better than no muffin.

    All of my fruit comes from the market. :O)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. J, I did read online that some people were finding the mulberries were too bland for them. It might depends on how addicted we are to sugar too I guess :-) I do try to cut down on sugar but sometimes the recipe just needs a bit of sweetening.

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  4. Hi Nanna Chel,
    We don't have mulberry trees in our neck of the woods but I do know you can make ink from the berries for writing. Those recipes are worth saving though.
    Hope you and your fruit trees are surviving the heat.
    -Shiralee.

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  5. I didn't know that, Shiralee. I just did a Google search and saw some instructions there. I imagine it could be used in painting and perhaps scrapbooking.

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