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I hadn't become a mulberry addict until my boyfriend introduced me to the dried fruit. The berry is a perfect combination of chewy with an ever-so-slight crunch and it packs a powerful anti-oxidant punch with resveratrol, which is also found in the skin of red grapes. Eaten alone, its sweetness can satisfy the deepest of sweet tooths but can also serve as a nice, less sugary addition when mixed into a healthy yet bland-ish cold cereal or yogurt.
Unfortunately though, finding the dried snack has proved difficult in our Brooklyn neighborhood. After unsuccessfully scouring my local food coop and nearby bodegas, we resorted to buying the berry in bulk online—imported all the way from Turkey.
So when I found out a mulberry tree was situated at the entrance of our neighborhood park (thanks to the knowledge of my mulberry maven beau) and that it was in bloom, our "think globally, act locally" mantra kicked in and we began keeping our eyes on the tree like a hawk—waiting to see when it would bear it's peak fruit. Two weeks ago, the berries were still green-ish in tint and tasted more like a salad than sweet. This morning, however, we looked up into the tree as though staring into a mulberry cloud of heaven. The tree bore bounties of white, plump and moist berries that were as delightful on the eye as they were on the palette.
We picked over the tree branches that we were able to reach, crying out for joy when we found the perfectly big, juicy ones. Sidewalk passerby's looked at us with intrigue as we noshed straight of the tree and piled berries high in my palm to take home to dry. My favorite moment though, was a when a Parks Department ranger drove by and yelled out the window, "Are they ready yet?" After shouting back an enthusiastic, "Yes!," he told us that we could make a great wine out of the fruit.
I couldn't tell if I was drunk off of mulberry ecstasy or the fact that I was standing in my urban neighborhood, feeding off of a local tree.
If you can spot a mulberry tree in your urban or suburban sprawl like we did, I highly recommend you make a local breakfast or a snack out of it.
Difficulty level: Easy
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