Mulberries are ripe in the land of Sleeping Bear
By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
If a tree could be a person, then the mulberry tree shading the grassy bank behind Riverfront Pizza & Specialties in Glen Arbor would be a kindly grandmother, offering shelter beneath her outstretched arms, inviting children to climb in her lap, and giving treats to her visitors — at least for a couple of weeks each year.
“It was there when I was a kid,” said Glen Arbor resident Leonard Thoreson, 84. Thoreson’s parents lived briefly in the house that eventually became home to Riverfront. Though Thoreson, himself, never lived there, he recalls his children climbing the mulberry tree and playing in the nearby Crystal River.
Thirty years ago, current owner Tim Nichols transformed the former rental house into a popular place for take-out pizzas and submarines. The tree was mature even then, and used to offer a level branch several feet from the ground that was a particular climbing favorite of the kids. The limb eventually grew so large that it cracked and had to be removed.
Despite the loss, Tim said kids still love the tree and eat the ripe fruit. Anyone with a bit of balance can easily negotiate the tree’s most memorable feature — a trunk (actually, two) that travels along the ground and rises gently before angling upward, toward the sunlight. This is a common attribute of the Red Mulberry (morus rubra, a.k.a. “Moral”), a native species used by first peoples not only for food but also for garments. Bark fibers were dyed, spun and woven to make cloaks. Spanish explorers also used the fibers to make ships’ ropes before sailing the Mississippi.
The Red or American variety of the tree is hardy, surviving pollution, poor or sandy soil and drought. In rich soil, however, the tree can grow to heights of 70 feet and live up to 75 years. They prefer full sun and plenty of space, with at least 15 feet between trees. They also defy wind and work well as vegetative breaks, proving themselves on the windswept Great Plains. Since the trees can spring spontaneously from seeds dropped by birds or critters, the mulberry has a reputation as a “weed” tree or, in the case of unpruned branches, a bush. For this reason, the tree isn’t mentioned in Empire resident Stella Otto’s two indispensable guides to cultivars, The Backyard Orchardist or The Backyard Berry Book.
“They show up wild, as opposed to a cultivated tree, in most people’s yards,” she explained. “Everybody lets them go and do their thing … Back in the day, before we had easier berries, they were popular on old-fashioned farmsteads because they were easy (growing). We’re more spoiled (today), with easy cultivars like strawberries and raspberries.”
Mulberry memories
The fruit is as fragile as the trees are hardy. Mulberries aren’t true berries but aggregate fruit (think blackberries) having many seeds — each inside a self-contained, bead-like chamber or drupelet — which cling to a central stalk. While blackberries are tough, ripe mulberries are soft and easily damaged.
Lynette Grimes is Director of Sales and Marketing for Food for Thought, a local company offering organic, wild-crafted and organic canned foods. She explained that wild harvesting mulberries presents a number of problems for commercial production. Most grow in “somebody’s backyard,” fine for picking and eating raw but not so easy for gathering. The fruit ripens over a series of days, instead of at once, which complicates the canning process. They can be found occasionally in area farmers’ markets, but never in great quantity. The fruit’s fragileness is the clincher, though.
“The fact that you don’t see them that much is kind of (a result of) our industrial agriculture, because they’re not made for shipping,” she noted. “They can’t bounce at 50 mph and not crack, like tomatoes we ship. They’re treated almost like an heirloom fruit — viable for neighborhood markets, not supermarkets.”
The ripe, dark-purple mulberries, reaching 9-percent sugar content, are a beacon for birds. Tim’s wife, Sue, loves the Cedar Waxwings that flock to the trees when it’s mulberry feasting time. In-between preparing specialty sandwiches, salads, soups and desserts for Riverfront’s western annex, she catches glimpses of the birds as they flit between bushes and trees she’s planted, including two mulberries. (A third tree seeded itself.)
Grimes, a Manistee native who moved to Benzonia six years ago, described her mulberry harvesting method: she and her friends gather at night to shake the mulberry trees growing in their neighborhood. Some folks stretch sheets across the ground to catch the fruit, but not her group.
“We’re like little birds with our mouths open,” she explained, with a laugh. “I like when they’re ripe enough to fall off the branch.”
Grimes waxes a bit sentimental about the fruit. The first time she ate them, she was camping in Tennessee with her husband. The pair followed a path to a waterfall and discovered a mulberry tree ready for harvest. They gorged on sweet, tasty mulberries and “savored that moment” as one of the unplanned gems that can happen during a trip.
Back in Glen Arbor, it’s grounds-keeping time for Tim Nichols and his crew. Ripe mulberries are falling from the tree every day. Though it’s a temporary nuisance, he would never consider removing the old girl.
“It’s a neat tree,” he said. “It has a lot of character to it; it’s like part of the area.”
Mulberry information supplied by Fandex Family Field Guide to Trees and the California Rare Fruit Growers. Riverfront Pizza & Specialties is located at 6281 W. Western Ave., near the river bend, east of Oak St. Call (231) 334-3876 for information.
