My taste buds must have done a happy dance this last weekend. While I was at the Farmer’s Market, I saw a man selling mulberries, a fruit that is extremely rare in the USA but popular in Africa and some parts of Asia. As I popped the fruit in my mouth, I was flooded with memories and began to tell the farmer tales from my childhood. I recounted the many times that I walked into the house with mulberry stained hands, clothes and teeth and then try to lie to my parents by telling them that I was at a friends house doing homework. I told him about my tree climbing lessons and how many bruises my brothers and I got merely from trying to reach that branch that hung heavy with fresh, juicy, ripe fruit. Before I left, I taught how to remove mulberry stains on clothing and fingers by rubbing raw mulberries on the stain and then washing as usual. He gave me my fruit and I left, happy as a clam.
Prior to this day, it had been over 20 years since I last had a mulberry. Like many living in the diaspora, I had learnt to use blackberries as an acceptable substitution for mulberries, but there is a difference:
- Blackberries grow on bushes, mulberries on trees
- Blackberries are deep purple to black, mulberries can be purple, red or white
- Blackberries are picked without the stem, mulberries have the stem
- Mulberries can leave stains, blackberries generally do not stain.
- From a nutrition standpoint, they both are great sources of magnesium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin K, antioxidants and potassium. Blackberries however are higher in folate than mulberries
At approximately 43 calories per 100g serving, mulberries are a wonderful choice for a fat free, delicious, healthy food item. Do you have mulberry and blackberry memories of your own? If so, please share.
Here’s to your health!
