Last fall, a reader wrote in with a question that I could hear the panic in—she’d planted a young mulberry tree six feet from her back patio four years earlier because it was the only sunny spot in her yard, and now there was a crack running clean across two paving stones. When she knelt … Read more
Table of Contents Unlocking the Mulberry: A Journey from Sweet to Tart What is a Mulberry and Why Should You Try It? A Sneak Peek into the Mulberry Flavor Spectrum A Tale of Three Berries: Mulberry Taste Comparison Black Mulberries: The Rich and Complex Favorite Red Mulberries: A Perfect Balance of Sweet and Tangy White … Read more
Table of Contents The Unforgettable Flavor of Shahtoot: An Introduction to Pakistan Mulberries What Makes Pakistan Mulberries (Shahtoot) So Special? A Taste of Summer: Why You Should Be Cooking with Mulberries Sweet Shahtoot Sensations: Authentic Pakistani Mulberry Dessert Recipes The Ultimate Refresher: Classic Shahtoot ka Sharbat (Mulberry Drink) Ingredients: Instructions: A Creamy Dream: How to … Read more
Last spring, a reader from the UK emailed me a photo that stopped me mid-coffee. It showed what looked like a fist-sized cluster of knobby stumps at the top of a mulberry trunk, all sprouting a wild, chaotic halo of whip-thin new shoots reaching in every direction. Her message was worried: Is my tree dying? … Read more
Two batches, same recipe, same five pounds of mulberries picked off the same tree an hour apart — and they came out like they were made by two different people. My first batch sat on top of the refrigerator because that was the only flat surface in my kitchen, and three weeks later it hit … Read more
Three years ago, I walked into a garden center on a whim and fell completely in love with a tiny tree in a nursery pot. It had this enchanting, cascading shape—like someone had crossed a weeping willow with a fruit tree—and I had exactly one empty terracotta pot on my patio that seemed to be … Read more
I’ll never forget the afternoon last spring when Margaret from my garden club stood beneath my young white mulberry and delivered the news with absolute certainty: the nursery had sold me three trees in one pot. She walked me slowly around the trunk, pointing at the leaves like a prosecutor presenting evidence. Here was a … Read more
Two summers ago, my neighbor Ruth sold her house. The first thing the buyers mentioned at the fence was that the 40-year-old mulberry shading her back porch was “coming down for a patio.” That tree had fed my family jam for a decade — half its canopy hung over my side. I had exactly one … Read more
It was a Saturday morning in June when my neighbor knocked on the door with a smile that said everything. A mulberry branch the thickness of my forearm was draped across her fence, and below it, her pristine white car looked like it had been tie-dyed in deep purple. She wasn’t angry—mulberry people are patient … Read more
I’ll never forget standing in my backyard on a gray February afternoon, holding a young mulberry sapling and genuinely panicking. The nursery tag said it was “cold hardy,” but I lived in Zone 6b, and I’d just read three different websites that each claimed something different about mulberry growing zones. One said my variety would … Read more
