Not-Yet-Ripe Mulberries

Who doesnt love the idea of free fruit that falls from the sky!

The mulberry tree (Morus spp.) is a beautiful giant with over 300 varieties worldwide.  At their ripened stage, the berries range in colors from black, red, white, and purple.  In this article, I will be discussing 3 commonly found species: Morus nigra (Black Mulberry), M. rubra (Red Mulberry), and M. alba (White Mulberry).  There can actually be many colors of berry ripened on one tree as they are prone to hybridization, and for the hungry forager, if you’ve got ripe mulberries then eat up and enjoy!!

Mulberries are a delicious and versatile snack that are sold in many health food stores. Because of their short shelf life, they are first dehydrated and then packaged in plastic while the labels read “Turkish super fruit – Harvested from Turkey”.  Not exactly a sustainable purchase.  Meanwhile, a barrage of mulberries litter our neighborhood streets and most people don’t even realize it.  They are too busy jogging and driving on them to stop and ask the question, “Hmm I wonder what this is?  Is it edible?”

Fortunately for people like me (opportunivores), that leaves a whole bounty of unchecked fruit pouring from the sky waiting to be harvested and shared with friends.  Go out and look around!  They are more abundant than you think, check neighborhoods, parks, recreation centers and the occasional strip mall (not recommended for harvest).

The leaves are actually the sole diet for the silkworm which is why some of the nativeAsian varieties were imported here.  They tried and tried to create a silk industry in America but failed.  So we have worms to thank for an even greater abundance of local mulberries!  Mulberry leaves are also a very characteristic attribute to learning to identify the trees when they are not fruiting since they have a longer season than the fruits, but obviously shedding them too in the winter months.

This odd sign on the street is a sign of unrecognized gold! Most would walk past this and see crud on the pavement, but I would suggest, it’s a good time to get on your knees, look up and thank the heavens (or at least the trees) for the glorious bounty you have been offered!

Harvest and Preparation

You can find white and red mulberries fruiting in late spring, while black mulberries can be found up until August.  Mulberries are so special that they let you know when they are ripe.  The best ones to pick are off the ground.  That is the trees way of letting you know which berries it has perfectly ripened in offering to the 2 and 4 legged.  A great way to collect mulberries is to lie out a tarp or blanket under each limb as you gently shake to allow the ripened fruits to fall.  If you pick them from the tree and they don’t literally fall off the tree from touching them alone then they won’t be ripe and you will surely be convinced that your store bought ones have added sugar!

If you plan to eat them raw, they have a very short life in the refrigerator, about 3 days (which is why you don’t see them fresh in the store), so don’t collect a bunch and then waste some (bad for the animals).  However, you can dehydrate mulberries in the sun, just make sure animals won’t get to them and bring them in at night, or put them in a dehydrator.  Once they are fully dry, they will keep all year until next season!

Nutrition Facts

Mulberries are very high in antioxidants and help the body cleanse damaged cells that lead to many complications.  They also contain large amounts of vitamin C as well as Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, really high levels of Iron, and Dietary Fiber, which all help to give the body and mind incredible energy to live happy and healthy lives!  Due to the high energy content and virtually nonexistent fat content, they make a great snack to help lose weight.  They are also high in minerals like potassium, manganese, and magnesium and contain the B vitamins, B6, Niacin, Riboflavin, and Folic Acid.

Mulberries contain flavonoids and phyto-nutrients and are extremely high in anthocyanins which help to fight against cancer as well as reduce aging and neurological diseases, inflammation, diabetes, and bacterial infections.  The berries also contain resveratrol, a powerful blood flow increasing antioxidant which you have probably heard promoted through the wine industry as their new claim to fame (Although many “weeds” such as Japanese knotweed are around 300 times higher).  Resveratrol is a powerful healer for many conditions such as aging diseases, inflammation, and a number one go to as part of an herbal protocol for the treatment of Lyme disease (Having had Lyme, I’ve felt and seen those effects).

Added Healing Benefits of Discovering Mulberries

I, of course, always leap at any opportunity to teach more people about wild foods and the ecological importance of caretaking the earth, guitar students included.  So when I had discovered an unripe mulberry tree not too far from one student’s house, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to collect some and show them!  I harvested only a few as the tree wasn’t ripe, but I knew if she and her mother ate a few, it would unlock a door of realization.

As I knocked on their door and presented the few berries in my hands, Esha, my 8 year old student exclaimed, “Those are mulberries? We have them all over the driveway!”  Lo and behold, I had just drove under one of the mightiest and heaviest fruit bearing trees I had ever seen!  With haste, we all began to joyously scoop up handfuls and filling buckets.  I soon saw them sharing in the same ecstasy that I feel when I discover such a treasure trove!

Within minutes, daughter, mother, and aunt were scooping up mulberries along with me!  They had dropped all inhibitions and forgotten that people might think they were weird for picking stuff up off the ground and eating it in their “normal” neighborhood.  It opened them up to the wild of the world.  They were ALIVE!!

Soon, Esha’s mother was spreading blankets on the ground for easy collection the following day while they all were picking away!  Joy and shock was beaming over their faces.  It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

Esha kept exclaiming that she couldn’t believe that these were in her front yard in which I got the opportunity to share that nature provides sacred prasad (holy offerings) to us and we just forgot how to see it.  In previous conversations, Esha’s mother had talked about how they had sprayed their lawn in which I took the opportunity to ask, “Now will you not spray your lawn?”  Thank you mulberries and Nature for opening up another family to your sacred and special holy offerings.  Returning them one step closer to realizing that they ARE nature and no one can take that away!

Look at the joy!

 Here is also an instructional video on how I harvest at my mulberry spots:

Further Suggested Reading: Foraging Articles

Foraging Videos: Click Here

Stellaria media in flower

  You can notice the 10 tiny white petals, often looking like 5 pairs, on their delicate tiny flower, or maybe its 5 pairs looking like 10 tiny white petals (we will leave it to the botanists).  If you have a magnifying glass, this is a beautiful plant to observe close up.  You can also notice that it has a thin row of hairs on the stem alternating at each pair of leaves.  This is to help it climb and reach for nourishing sunlight without expending more energy than it needs to.

        Most of us think that once winter hits there is no plant growth and all of nature goes dormant and hibernates like a bear.  This perception is due to us closing our eyes to the sacred winter wonders and closing down our own awareness of what can be seen.  If we take the time to look there are so many continual treasures abound, even foods and medicines under the snow!  There are many wild edibles growing all winter; one of them being one of my favorites; Chickweed!  Chickweed or Latin (Stellaria media) is a plant that defies all odds medicinally, nutritionally, and seasonally.

In my observation, I perceive this plants nutrition and healing are so appropriately tuned into the winter season while most plants prefer otherwise.  From this perspective, I feel that this plant being stepped up to fulfill a sacred purpose that took incredible courage, when most of us think we will melt if we get rained on.  Chickweed contains several B vitamins potentially including B12.  Vitamin B deficiencies are linked to depression and lethargy.  A definite factor with winter blues.  It also contains vitamin C to keep us healthy and free of flus and colds all throughout the winter months.  Vitamin C is unable to be stored in the body and was a big factor in so many people of the past having died over the winter.  Surely chickweed is one of the heroes of our time which have helped and cared for us and brought us to this point in evolution.  Let us remember and give thanks that our ancestors have eaten tons of chickweed and right now we all have chickweed DNA inside of us!  (Much more so than fast food!)

Moving snow away to reveal chickweed treasures!

Chickweed Growth

Chickweed has a unique season of harvesting, which gives it a great niche in the plant world.  This is the advantage of going to seed in the summer while most everything is going to flower.  It begins to sprout in the fall, when everything else is starting to get bitter, small, and hard to chew (she likes to do her own thing). Chickweed is a rare breed eager to play in the snow and it grows new, tender, succulent greens at the perfect and unique time for foragers to get a healthy dose of wild food all year long. It is at its best for picking in the fall and the spring and you can go out and dig snow off of your patch at any time, or wait for the snow to periodically melt to reveal a beautiful abundance of fresh chickweed.  There is something extra tasty about finding it in the snow, so cold and full of fresh water, juicy and succulent, and when you munch on it you will feel like [foraging] Hercules!

Chickweed is in its full glory in the spring and during the summer it will die back as the temperature heats up, but once it starts cooling down again you will find it starting to grow. Notice how it likes the cool weather, and that’s its medicinal offering. It’s a great idea to look for chickweed patches during their optimal seasons of growth; fall and spring.  Once you successfully identify them you can cultivate and tend to them all year long.  If you give care to it this is surely one plant that will really care for you.  Since you do get 2-3 “seasons” you will have many chances at harvesting as long as you let it go to seed and don’t over harvest.  You can also collect the seeds or purchase them and grow chickweed sprouts for a nutritious and delicious addition to salads.  The benefit of purchasing them is that sprouts don’t get the chance to mature and make the next generations seeds, so you will reduce your wild areas by taking their seeds.

Chickweed Healing

It’s amazing how such a delicate little plant is so full of vigor; a great indicator of its medicine it offers to us.  This little plant is fully packed with vitamins C, rutin, PABA (para amino benzoic acid), GLA (gamma linoleic acid) which is a derivative of omega 6 fatty acid, niacin,  riboflavin (B2), thiamin (B1), beta carotene (A), magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, sodium, selenium, and silicon. It may even be a source of vitamin B 12.

The medicinal properties of chickweed are cooling and soothing; indicative of its signature of winter growth. According to the herbal traditions, this plant is seen as diuretic, tonic, demulcent, expectorant, and mildly laxative. It is often recommended for congestion issues like bronchitis and asthma, and it even helps with losing weight.  It is also helpful with PMS symptoms because of its incredible nutrient content and also helps to relieve people of many arthritic conditions, thanks to silicon and the other minerals chickweed contains as well as its ability to soothe pain.

I love a salad using chickweed as a replacement for lettuce.  It is tender, delicious, nutrient packed, and the taste has been likened to corn silk.  You can also experiment with making your own chickweed pesto, and gently steam chickweed for a yummy cooked side dish, or an addition to stir fries like you would bean sprouts.

Chickweed Poultice

Get ½ to 1 cup full of chickweed (or a handful)

It’s always good to say a prayer and leave an offering when you take from Nature, especially if your intent is to make medicine. Let it know why you came, and what you wish to do, and surely it will increase those chemicals within itself and want to help.

Put it in your blender or grind it up with a mortar and pestle until you have a mush consistency, you can even add olive oil, honey, or coconut oil to help it stay on the skin and thicken.  Honey will also be anti-septic and soothe a burn.  Olive oil and coconut oil will retain moisture and help with dry skin.  You can also wrap the plant material with a gauze or ace bandage.  Or use an old t-shirt to tie it on.

This poultice is really good for cooling the skin; minor heat burns, sunburn, rashes, eczema, pimples, itching, and all other skin conditions that we don’t know what to do about.  It’s also really helpful for inflammation and sore areas; sprains, and tired muscles.

          You can find chickweed growing in fields, lawns, and it’s probably growing in your very own garden without you realizing it.  I found a huge patch in my neighbor’s garden right between his tomatoes.  I asked him if I could eat them around it and he of course thought I was crazy. Upon seeing me the next day, and the next day after that he was rest assured that I didn’t die.  Eventually I even got him to taste some and now he knows how great these little beautiful “weeds” can be.

Chickweed is a nutrient power Mama and is a great way to beat those lethargic “snack and cookie” winter hibernating blues.  To harvest it you will have a great excuse to go play in the snow and breathe in the cool fresh air, get some exercise, and discover that the wonders of nature are in full effect over the winter.

          Remember to take time to put on your boots and move some snow aside, look at all the wild greens that are still there, just like if you froze greens from the store, and harvest yourself up some chickweed salad in the middle of winter.  Enjoy!  IN-JOY!