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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Mulberry Project Part 1


purple mulberries

It was 10 days ago that I was trying to harvest mulberries- way to early, as it turns out, even though a few were purple then. So even though it was beastly hot, I went out today and shook enough branches to get a gallon plus of berries. They needed to be checked over for bugs and sticks and ones already gone to seed. That took a good hour.

Next they got simmered in water for an hour.

purple mulberries simmering

After that, I set up my jelly bag and strained the juice.

purple mulberries straining for juice

The juice is now in the refrigerator. What will I do with it? Not jelly. We don't seem to eat hardly any jelly. Come back tomorrow and see what happens.


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7 comments:

Rick (Ratty) said...

I don't think I've ever had mulberries any way but straight off the tree. You have my extreme interest.

betchai said...

very interesting, a gallon plus of berries, that is wonderful. hmmm, wonder what you will make of the juice. berry pie?

Emma Springfield said...

I have two guesses. Last year you made a syrup that sounded fantastic. Recently you were making rhubarb wine. So I will guess either wine or syrup.

Secondary Roads said...

I think Emma might be on the right track . . . I wondered about how good your berries were when you first posted about them this year. At that time, mine were not very tasty at all. Fortunately they are very good now. Love the flavor of mulberries.

Ann said...

So how much juice do you get out of a gallon of berries? I won't even try to guess I'll just wait till tomorrow
I don't think I've ever tried a mulberry.

Sharkbytes said...

ratty- this is really all i've ever done with mulberries, but i'm thinking i might try something else if i can get my act together

betchai- i haven't tried these in a pie. it would be a real pain to remove all the little green stems. i wonder if you would need to do that

emma- it wasn't me that made wine, but i saw it on someone's blog too

chuck- some years they aren't as tasty as others

ann- i got 8 cups of juice and then i added 6 cups of sugar. it reduced to 6 cups of syrup

rainfield- i knew you would! Do you have a syrup tooth?

RNSANE said...

Well, since I already read the 2nd post first, I know the outcome. I wish I were coming over for waffles!