mulberrys

So today I was on a walk when nostalgia stopped me in my tracks. A familiar fragrance filled my nasal pharynx as I was swept back to my childhood. I looked around me but saw nothing out of the ordinary surrounding the trail I was walking. I looked down and I saw a few deep purple splotches staining the ground, they were familiar but I could not quite place them. The smell was on the tip of my tongue. It was then that I looked up and saw the berries (like above) hanging on the familiar shaped leaves. Mulberrys!

When we lived in Michigan there was a mulberry tree outside of our house. I remember the Great Mulberry Harvest of 1991. It was a warm Saturday afternoon, Ma was in the kitchen and Pa was in the field... just kidding, I don't remember it that well. But I do remember one day we picked a bagillion mulberries. It was fun; I was like 10 years old. I remember the blue stains that the berries left on the deck when they fell, that may have been the reason for the harvest - to prevent further staining of the deck.

I am not sure the exact evolution, maybe my Mom can fill us in. But I remember when we were picking them the bottom of our feet started staining blue, so we put on shoes/flip-flops, then the bottom of those started staining. Maybe we were tracking it into the house because I also remember taping newspaper to the bottom of our shoes to keep them clean and the berry juice dyeing the paper a purple/blue color. It must have been a fun day. Or at least that is the feeling I got when I smelled the fragrance this afternoon.

I ate these.

I initially resisted the urge to climb a railing nearby so I could reach up and pick some. It is a pretty populated walking path, I would look silly. So I smiled at the memory and continued on my walk. I turned around at the end of the trail and headed back but the second time I could not not stop. I had to have some. I wanted to remember what they taste like and I wanted a picture for this blog post. I did the unorthodox thing and stopped to climb some railing nearby so I could reach up to pick the wild mulberry's from the city's property. I was initially embarrassed but that only lasted a second, then I was on my own world foraging for fresh berries like Huck Fin. If Huck Fin foraged for berries, I don't actually remember the book that well.

Anyhow, the berries were still young so I had to search for ripe ones. After eating a bunch, I put a few in my hot little hands and headed home vowing to return when they were ready to harvest (under the cloak of night of course because day time harvesting would be embarrassing). I remember my mom made mulberry jam out of the berries. I believe it was coming out of her ears for years. Good times, great memories.