Mulberry Memories

It looks like we have a volunteer mulberry tree (Morus alba) growing along our back lot line. It is about 5 feet tall .  If it were near our driveway or sidewalk, I  would probably remove it as the berries will stain everything, if it is a female tree, but this is in a mostly harmless place.  The birds will eat the berries, and the driveway and sidewalk may still get stained, but not to the same extent. 

Mulberries are interesting because of  the varying shape of the leaves on the same tree, some have several lobes, some are shaped like mittens, and some are oval. It is a deciduous tree and doesn't have much of a flower in the spring, but the female tree has long, thin, berries.  They grow fairly quickly and can reach 30 to 50 ft high. With spreading branches.

I have wonderful memories of the mulberry tree in my friend's back yard in Wisconsin when I was a child. It was probably a Morus rubra , which has better tasting berries that are colored red.  We had so much fun climbing that tree.  We would sit up there visiting for many hours, and oh, how I loved it when there was fruit.  I would eat those berries until I made myself sick.  None of the other neighborhood kids liked them very much, which meant more for me!

There is a huge mulberry tree in the Birmingham Botanical gardens .  When I walked there this spring I was in heaven while there were berries on the tree.  When I walk at the gardens, it is usually very early morning , so the berries would be my breakfast feast. It was covered up in berries this spring.  I don't know if the warm winter we had had anything to do with that or not. The friend I walk with was very patient while I stopped to eat. I was very grateful for my couple of weeks of mulberry feasts.

Over the weekend we had enough basil for another batch of pesto.  My granddaughters Gates and Arden helped with this batch so that they could learn how to make it.  I put them to work stripping the leaves off the stems.  We had it over pasta , and they got to take some home. The girls were particularly intrigued by the purple variety of basil.  It is one of my favorites as well. 

I have rooted some more, so it is time to put it in pots.  The rosemary I potted last week is still doing well.  I think I will bring some of each in for the winter in pots, even though the rosemary generally is winter hardy this far South.
Susan