Ruth Nakamura · April 23, 2026
Stickiness is frequently your first clue. A glossy coating of honeydew settles across the foliage hanging below an infested section, dark sooty mold begins spreading over the stems, and tucked somewhere in that mess you’ll discover either hard, bumpy protrusions or fluffy white waxy clusters fastened to the branches. This constellation of signs points to … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · April 21, 2026
For the first three years on this property, I grew exactly one mulberry tree. It was a volunteer that had seeded itself along the fence line, and I thought that was enough. I was wrong. That single tree dropped fruit…
Ruth Nakamura · April 19, 2026
The first few years after I planted my mulberry trees, I treated the ground beneath them like dead space. I mowed around the trunks, kept the soil bare, and figured the trees would do their own thing. They did —…
Ruth Nakamura · April 17, 2026
The first time I had a truly massive mulberry harvest — somewhere around year three on this homestead — I panicked. I stood in my backyard staring at forty pounds of freshly picked fruit with absolutely no plan. I processed…
Ruth Nakamura · April 15, 2026
In the spring of my first year on this homestead, I planted a mulberry tree eight feet from my back fence. I was proud of that decision. I had done my research — or so I thought — and I…
Ruth Nakamura · April 13, 2026
In year three of growing mulberries, I stood under my first mature white mulberry and watched about forty pounds of fruit hit the ground over the course of a week. I had no system. I had no containers. I had…
Ruth Nakamura · April 11, 2026
For the better part of my years tending mulberry trees, I overlooked the foliage entirely — it simply appeared in tremendous volume each season, destined for the compost pile while my attention stayed locked on harvesting fruit. Things shifted when I began digging into how Morus alba leaves have functioned as a brewed remedy across … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · April 9, 2026
I was standing on my back deck one afternoon in late July, staring at the stain that had darkened to almost black in the summer heat, when I realized the smell — that acrid, sun-baked varnish smell — had soaked into the wood so thoroughly it was coming back up through the boards. That same … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · April 8, 2026
Most people who’ve just planted their first mulberry tree think fermented preserves are basically jam that sits in a jar and gets tangy. That assumption crumbles the moment you actually taste one—and realize the whole preservation method works on an entirely different principle, requires almost no equipment, and produces something that genuinely tastes better after … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · April 6, 2026
During my opening years managing mulberry trees on this property, I made just about every rookie mistake possible: I’d let whole branches worth of ripe fruit drop and rot untouched, the deck took on permanent dark stains I’m still trying to scrub away, and the ground beneath my Pakistan variety was basically a mulberry compost … Read more
