And I’ve finally got mulberries to harvest again, thanks to the multiple trees in the Grocery Row Gardens, along with the wild red mulberry out in the cow pasture.
These came from the Grocery Row Garden yesterday afternoon:
Rachel made a mulberry pie the other night from black mulberries that was absolutely delicious. I think we have about eight varieties in the yard now, though I’m not sure what most of their names are, since we moved rather abruptly and dug them up and replanted them without any labelling system.
The “Ivory” mulberry (from Burnt Ridge Nursery) in the Grocery Row Gardens makes a nice, large white fruit, bigger than the ones pictured above, and it’s fruiting well this year. I’ve been trying to start more from cuttings, but the twigs are refusing to root for me.
Our multiple “Dwarf Everbearing” trees, though they aren’t the best variety, are keeping the kids entertained, as they’re covered with little fruit this year.
The “Rachel Goodman” mulberry in the Grocery Row Gardens was knocked over by a windstorm, so the boys propped it back up by hammering in a T-post and tying it to that. That poor tree can’t catch a break! Last year, it froze to the ground in our nasty late frost which happened after it was already in full fruit with lots of tender growth. This year it was the wind.
I would like to add more mulberries to my nursery. We may need a mist system to get them to root well. Some types just don’t want to root easily. Unfortunately, the “Dwarf Everbearing” roots very easily, so we always have that one (like every other nursery), but we’d like to add some better varieties. Often, when you stick mulberry cuttings, they’ll bud out and even go into fruit without making any roots at all. And then, much later, they rot and die, still without producing roots.
Maybe I’ll just hire Randall at Flomaton Famous to root a bunch for me. He has the magic touch.