Mulberries to boot!

Following our foraged dinner delight, Alicia and I had an itch for more foraging! It seems that foraging has this addictive quality and the more I learn the more I am excited about the food that surrounds me. Fortunately for me, Milwaukee is filled with edibles (in fact, I have a few new foraging adventures that I will be embarking on soon). Today while planting in my urban garden bed, I noticed a peculiar tree with jewel-toned berries. The berries, like small blackberry or a long raspberry, hung off of each branch in a way that lured me in. After I finished with our meal, I mentioned this tree to Alicia; and she supposed that the tree was a Mulberry tree filled with edible berries. So needless to say, we hiked on over to the tree and examined the branches and leaves and berries. Indeed it was a Mulberry tree!

Mulberries ripen over a period of weeks, and thus can be harvested at your convenience. Keep your eyes peeled over the next month in search for these lovely little berries. It truly would be a shame if you missed this delightful berry!

A note on the leaves: all trees have a little bit of a different leaf pattern though they are all similar and all types of leaves can potentially be found on each tree. While more mature trees tend to have leaves that are less lobed, smaller and more aggressive trees tend to have more lobed leaves. Here is an example of three different leaves that we found on two different Mulberry trees:

Happy eating and foraging!