Sunday, June 23, 2013

What is ripe down on the farm?

I have many fruit bearing trees on my property.

I have sweet cherries (Prunus avium)
Stark Gold.  Not quite ripe.  But soon.

I have June berries (Amelanchier sp.)

Pay attention to the birds.  The birds say these are best.  And they are right.

Close-up.  Crushing the seeds with your molars while chewing adds an extra dimension of flavor.

I have Mulberries (Morus sp. and hybrids).  Native Red Mulberries tend to have one berry per leaf and ample leaves to photosynthesize the sugars that make them tasty.  White Mulberries (the species name, most of them are purple) have multiple berries per leaf bud and relatively few leaves per berry.  They tend to be insipid.  The picture below has almost no leaves supporting all the berries clustered along the stem.
The reason you see so much fruit on this branch is because the birds are ignoring them.  I have 16 trees along this fence row and this is the only tree with photogenic amounts of fruit.  Don't assume that you don't like mulberries after trying berries from only one or two trees.  Look for the tree with very few ripe fruit on it.  Pay attention to the birds.

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