A few years ago, I visited the property my relative had leased to start a business. It was a commercial building in the 1970s, with wraparound parking. Lots were weeds, messy, wild landscape plants and Mexican poppies growing along cracks in the sidewalk.
Then I saw a familiar little tree with leaves. mulberry! A detailed examination revealed that it was fruitful. However, the fruits had not turned purple. Instead, they were white!
“Normal” fertilizer ripens from green to red and purple, but these had green to translucent white, green to shades, and sometimes pink or purple blush.
The flavor is different from the standard black mulberry fruit. Like honey, or just white sugar.
When dried, it has a honey currant flavor and is really tasty.
I asked to take some cuttings and eradicated some that I had planted in the North Florida Food Forest Project. When we moved abroad I left those trees behind, but when we returned to the state, I hunted the mulberry again again, this time from Burnzridge Nursery.
I planted both of them in a groceries garden. One variety (ivory white) produces slightly larger fruit with a slightly purple blush, while the other (forgets the cultivar) produces green white fruit. Neither is more complicated than black mulberry, but I don’t think it’s that good with cobblers or jams, so I’ll go to a dehydrator.
Dehydration doesn’t look good, but it really improves the flavor. It’s tasty!
You can watch the harvest video here to see the trees in detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrdfjgarjry
I have to seep into my garden. And the whites were outstanding producers this year.
