All Around The Mulberry Bush

Summer is here...  My kids are both done with their school year and are happy sleeping in.  Our home garden is going wild - it's lush and filled with different blooms daily.  On the farm we're learning what we have as we bought it during the winter.  Some things were obvious, like the gorgeous large magnolia tree we have in front of the house.  The smell of the blooming flowers wafts as you cross the front yard.  It gives me visions of many years to come of sitting on the porch with friends and family, sipping tea (or a mint julep) and smelling these fragrant blooms in the humid air.

Summer is here... as mentioned in my last blog, we found a blackberry bush in our back yard.  Yesterday I took Katie to finally see the farm and we picked a ton of blackberries.  My heart sung as I smelled the delicious tang of warm berries in a bucket.  I haven't smelled that glorious smell since we moved here 16 years ago.  I explored a couple of feet down from the patch we were picking from and found another patch with bigger berries.  I started hacking at the weeds around it and ate/picked berries to my hearts content.  I even kept picking when it started to rain... with no one watching me but a donkey or two...  I figure we have about 50' x 12' of blackberry bushes and I couldn't be happier.  I even laughed as my arms got scratched up from the bramble.  It's a badge of honor.

Summer is here...  Cherie realized while I was working last week that Bill and I have a Mulberry tree on our farm.  The conversation
   C "Hey you've got a Mulberry tree on your property"
   H "You mean bush?"
   C  "That's what I thought too, but they're actually trees.  Who knew?"
This was the same conversation with everyone I had after that... everyone thought they came on bushes lol!  Most I spoke to knew about mulberries but had never actually SEEN one.  Anyway Cherie did some picking and testing of recipes and got me excited to get my butt back to the farm to try baking with these myself.  I've gone from having to be happy with just blueberries annually to now having three types of berries to bake with in the summer... Oh Lord, mama is gonna need a diet between summer and Christmas cuz I'm not going up another pants size...

Summer is here... when you have an abundance of berries it's best to share... Berry picking is really meant to be done in groups... everyone laughing and having a good time.  This is a rite of passage for kids...  Those warm summer days with dripping berry juice everywhere.  Purple hands and chins.  So Cherie put the word out and a couple of our new friends brought their kids.  More mulberries were bagged and blackberries picked.  Kids ran around playing with the cats, goats and donkeys...  It's our new normal and I couldn't be happier. I love the simple country life where 'just so' southern living isn't a thing... where neighbors share and delight in each others gifts.  Where instead of going to the store for a bar of soap or a slab of bacon... you call the person who makes amazing goat milk soap... or the guy who raises pigs.  Supporting your local farmer and the organic lifestyle.

Summer is here... I spent the morning making a blackberry pie and a mulberry pie - so my family can do a side by side comparison.  Are they the same... similar... or completely different?  I'm so excited to be having fresh blackberry pie with a slab of vanilla ice cream on it tonight that I have to keep from pinching myself to ensure it's really happening.  I also made mulberry scones that Cherie recommended.  They're divine... I'm going to freeze whats left for my work travels after my family devours a good portion first.

Blackberries are harder to harvest but easier to work with.  You can rinse and cook without a lot of damage to the berry.  Mulberries are ridiculously easy to harvest (shake the branch and pick up what falls on your blanket) but they make blackberries look like granite in comparison with their fragility.  You can leave the mulberry stems on when you cook, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so.  I figured out if you freeze them overnight and then clip their stems while they're defrosting, they survive the de-stemming process easily.  After that, the semi frozen berry can be handled pretty much like the blackberry.

Summer is here, which means Bill and I will be working more... but I'm so ever grateful that we've somehow found a little patch of heaven that we could have days like yesterday on.  We're blessed.

Summertime and the livin is easy... mulberries are dropping and the blackberries are high...  :)