Over the past few years I have felt very strange standing on the corner of the off-ramp, picking mulberries from the tree. There have been curious looks and even the occasional unsettling yell from a passing car. Which I have tried to ignore.
This year, I have noticed I'm not the only one going to this tree. I've seen an older man, just standing there eating berries. He looked happy. That's nice. Today I drove past the tree and saw a young woman picking berries as well. I'm glad - there are enough for all of us.
Yesterday I took the kids and we picked white mulberries from the trees at the conservation land. We even saw a painted turtle on the sidewalk and debated what to do about it for a while before a man joined the conversation. He picked it up and put it back in the woods. (It scurried away. Scurried. I had no idea turtles could move that fast on land!) Then we picked more black mulberries. I combined them and made a crisp. Actually, I made 4 little individual crisps in ramekins and the rest in a little dish. Here's the topping (it's only half of the recipe - if you use the full recipe it's enough for a large corning ware dish):
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/2 c. rolled oats
3/8 c. flour
3/8 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. rolled oats
3/8 c. flour
3/8 c. packed brown sugar
This was cut together with a pastry cutter and sprinkled over the mulberries which had been mixed with a little sugar. Baked at 375 for about 30 minutes and then kept warm in the oven until we were ready to eat. Topped them with a little bit of heavy cream and they were gone in seconds!
We have a mulberry tree that planted itself in our yard but they grow so tall here that it is almost impossible to get any berries.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest way is to put a sheet or shower curtain under the tree and whack it with a long stick or something. I can't do that with the tree I go to since it's on a street corner...
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