Magnificent Mulberries

The mulberries are coming in.  Have you ever eaten a mulberry right from the tree, warm from the sunshine? It is like a very mild, sweet, soft blackberry without the tart and without the seed.

The heavy rains earlier this year probably washed the pollen off of the trees, Unc told me, resulting in a very sparse crop of mulberries this year.

We have one large mulberry tree on the west side of the farmhouse. The birds and deer eat most of those mulberries, so there are very few mulberries left for us humans. I also love the tree for its fall foliage also, so we continue to plant baby mulberry trees around the homeplace, knowing the wildlife will feast on the berries.

One year we even had a family of skunks come to visit and gorge themselves on mulberries  every night.

That was back when we used window fans in the bedrooms to pull in cooler air at night. Skunks travel in a cloud of their infamous odor, even if they have not been startled. I can still remember waking up to the pungent, undeniable odor of skunk in my bedroom. It is a rather alarming way to wake up! One does not go back to sleep easily while breathing eau de skunk!

Plus, in those days, our border collies lived outside, so I was always afraid the dogs would wake up and decide to chase away the skunks! Fun memories!

I love Mulberries so much, to eat and for the tree's beautiful fall foliage, that I sculpted an ornament and a brooch of the mulberry leaf. The angel is darting between the mulberry leaves in this sculpture. Her wings and skirt are made of mulberry leaves.