Thursday, April 7, 2011

Here We Go 'Round The Mulberry Bush {Try New Adventures Thursday}

I tasted my very first mulberry a couple weeks ago when we were in St. Petersburg, Florida. My very first mulberry ever! I'm not sure what I'd been doing up until that point, but now there's no going back. ;)

Today's happy discoveries just by the house...flowers and mulberries!

A couple of days ago, Andrew came home from school saying, "Hey hun! I think I found a mulberry tree just around the corner from our house..."

Excitement!!!

Last week's strawberries were awesome, but free mulberries walking distance from home? Even better. We went and picked about 2 1/2 cups worth of berries and from the looks of the tree, there are many more to come. We also found some lovely, sweet smelling flowers along the way.

Cheery
Mystery flowers
Does anyone know the name of the tree that grows these fragrant blossoms? They look very much like the flowers from a Tea Olive, but they're slightly different. Anyway...I digress.

What to do with my mulberries? Oh, so many options. But last night, we went with a pie (of sorts).


I had a small amount of leftover pie crust in my fridge and around 2 cups of de-stemmed mulberries, so I made a smallish pie/tart sort of thing in one of my corningware dishes. I adapted this mulberry pie recipe to the amount of berries I had (and also decreased the sugar and increased the flour called for). The result was out of this world good. 

For future mulberries, I'm thinking freezer jam, freezing mulberries for smoothies...and more pie, of course. I think a mulberry peach pie would be divine

Mulberry Pie

I'm curious to hear about your adventures this week--link up below! Don't forget to link back to Alicia's Homemaking and visit around with the other participants (Ya'll are good about that, so thank you!).






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15 comments:

  1. Alicia! That's wonderful. I am bookmarking this so I can refer back to it. We have a mulberry tree IN OUR YARD and they are just beginning to be ready to pick in this part of Florida. Now, if I could just manage to get some inside to make something with before my kids eat them all right from the tree :)

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  2. Ohhhh... mulberry pie. Yummy! Mulberry peach sounds wonderful too. What an exciting find for y'all!

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  3. I've never had mulberries before, but they look very good, especially that last picture...trying not to drool on my keyboard!

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  4. Yum! this looks awesome, I've never tried a mulberry...the closest I've come is reading"And to think that I saw it on Mulberry street" lo
    Have a great day!

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  5. We were just talking about mulberries yesterday! I don't even know if they sell them at the stores. What do they taste like? Raspberries? Blueberries? The pie/tart looks yummy.

    I linked up today...it actually was an adventure from 2 weeks ago, and it actually wasn't new (I hope that's okay), but it feels new every single time I donate my hair. I really have to gear up to chop of 10+ inches and getting a new look. (I won't discuss my issues here. =p hehe)

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  6. That looks amazing! I cant' wait to recreate it with blackberries, if they crop is good this year. Blackberries grow rampant around Seattle. So bad that many people just hack them down because they smother other plants and have bad thorns. I was shocked to learn this when we first moved here as I was collecting them by hug bags and baking up a storm. What a fun find!

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  7. Oooh, Joyce, mulberries are very good! They are sweeter than blackberries (no tartness)...can't think of any other way to describe the taste. So good though. You don't have to add much sugar when baking with them.

    Katie, I would be shocked right along with you. Cutting down fruit bushes=not okay!

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  8. Those mystery flowers look like they could be lilacs.

    Tessa

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  9. Tessa...yes...but they aren't! Lilacs are bigger I think. These grow on a tree...the flower part is only 2-3 inches long.
    I've tried googling it and have gotten nowhere.
    Thanks for being the 1st to tackle the issue of the mystery flowers...lol. :)

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  10. There are lilac trees as well as bushes, so you might try googling lilac tree and see what comes up!

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  11. Haha...Tessa, you are totally right!!! It's a Japanese Lilac Tree. Shows how much I know about lilacs. Ha!
    Thanks so much for helping me figure out what they were! It's so much better actually having a name for the flowers. :D

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  12. Heather WilloughbyApril 8, 2011 at 8:34 AM

    You inspired me to find a place to pick berries and we are off to Brooksville this morning for blueberries :)

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  13. I've never tasted mulberries before. We don't have a lot of them (that I know of) in Oregon. I'd like to try them, though.
    http://www.inspired2cook.com

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  14. We love picking mulberries for free too! There are a good number in our neighborhood along the bike path. My kids now look forward to mulberry season all year long! And so does my husband, because he absolutely loves it when I make mulberry crisp...

    P.S. Somehow I missed this post before; I hopped over today from TNAT. =)

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  15. I just stumbled across your blog while searching for a recipe for mulberry freezer jam. My family picked almost 10 cups of mulberries this afternoon from a massive tree at my parents' camp, and I can't wait to create something from these delicious berries! Did you ever make that freezer jam? I'd love to hear how you did it if you have...although that pie you baked looks incredible and I may have to change my plans now after seeing that!

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