Sunday 26 July 2009

The mulberry tree

Mulberry trees are welcome in the south of France because they withstand frost and bear a deep green shiny foliage which provides a thick shade in summer. The small berries they bear are edible, sweet and juicy ; they are red and turn black when ripe. I've heard that they're great to turn into jams, juices and syrups but I've never tried: I usually just nibble on them when I walk past one. This tree is in the street where my sister lives, maybe I could try and pick enough berries to make some jam? The Latin name is Morus Kayagamae. Have you ever heard of this tree? Does it grow where you live?

Le mûrier platane est un arbre très apprécié en Provence, il supporte bien le gel et porte durant l'été un feuillage d'un beau vert sombre et brillant qui offre une ombre épaisse. Ses baies sont sucrées et juteuses, elles deviennent rouges puis noires en mûrissant. Il parait qu'on peut en faire des confitures, des sirops et des jus mais moi je me contente de les manger tout de suite quand j'en trouve, c'est délicieux. Le nom latin est Morus Kayagamae. Connaissiez-vous cet arbre ? Pousse-t-il là où vous vivez ?

26 comments:

L'homme aux semelles sucrées said...

Oh, purée, quand t'en a un dans ton jardin, c'est tout pégueux par terre !

Michel Benoit said...

Curieusement, je n'en ai jamais mangé...

yvelinoise said...

ça ressemble à des groseilles...
Comme Avignon, je n'en ai jamais mangé, je ne connaissais même pas cet arbre ! On en apprend tous les jours. Merci Nath'

Anonymous said...

I love ripe mulberry trees. In the countyside they are located along old fence rows and they produce an abundant crops of juicy fruit for birds and animals and even people. I love them. It is truly a pretty picture.
Pick a Peck of Pixels

Leif Hagen said...

I'll have to look for Mulberry jam in our stores. Wonder if it's available?! We're lucky to have a big raspberry patch in our backyard!

Antjas said...

Yes, we have mulberry trees, but I am not too happy with them because the birds eat the berries and then leave their purple droppings on our swimming pool deck. They leave a stain. Seedlings also seem to pop up in the most inappropriate places. I must admit they have a uniquely shaped lovely leaf.

Lady P said...

when my mother was young and even for me in my youth, there was a song about going around the mulberry tree - though I have yet to see on myself or eat of its little berries

AnneduSud said...

Je n'aime pas du tout ces mûres et mes petits enfants adorent...
Souvenir des mûriers platanes: quand les enfants étaient petits ils ramassaient les feuilles pour nourrir les vers à soie à l'école et croyez moi il en fallait à profusion, ces petites bêtes étant gloutonnes!

Paty said...

j´aime ces mûres mais c ést difficile de les trouver ici en ma ville. J´irais en Provence en septembre, c´est possible que je les trouve, n´est-ce pas?

ratatouille's archives said...

Bonjour! Nathalie,
"...The Latin name is Morus Kayagamae. Have you ever heard of this tree? Does it grow where you live?..."

I have heard of mulberry bushes...and I'am not sure if mulberry trees or mulberries that grow on bushes?!? grow where I live.(As I shrug my shoulders)

But, Merci!...for sharing the
Latin name of this tree...Morus Kayagamae,
with your readers.
DeeDee ;-D

Anonymous said...

In South Africa we do have Mulberry trees. But what a job to pick.

Adam said...

Here we go round the Mulberry bush...

Funnily enough, I was walking past the Parc de Belleville today and kids were climbing on fences to pick the fruits of these trees. I wondered what they were to be honest as I'm not really familiar with them, but I think I'd always hesitate before eating fruit off trees in Paris!

Anonymous said...

Oh how I hate the mulberry. Squishy stains everywhere and little trees that quickly grow to the sky, shading the tiny sunny spot where I try to have a vegetable garden.

Owen said...

Hi Nathalie, just be careful when approaching such trees to pick the fruit, there is a particular variety of large praying mantis that lives in mulberry trees, which preys on photographers... ;-D

Patricia said...

I love mulberries and so do the deer and birds that live around us. Growing wild in a park near us are two trees. One provides the dark berries that you describe and one has white berries. The white ones are larger and have a more delicious flavor!

jeff said...

Tiens, ça me rappelle curieusement la première fois que j'ai laissé un commentaire sur "Avignon" !
Mais ce sont des fruits de mûriers platanes of course ! J'ai le même à la maison !... Bonjour les pompes quand on y marche dessus... ! Et bonjour les traces dans la maison !... Mais la saveur est bonne !... En tout cas, belle photographie !
Ciao Nathalie !...;-)

rauf said...

i doubt i have seen a fully grown tree Nathalie, this is grown in the fields. Cut leaves are fed to the silk worms. Sericulture is a cottage industry in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states of India. Most of the raw silk comes from Karnataka villages.

Cergie said...

J'ai découvert cet arbre dans le sud bien sûr, dans le Var chez mon beau frère et ma belle soeur. Je le trouve très beau, taillé comme un platane en plateau. Chez eux il est le support des guirlandes lumineuses de fête, il protège la terrasse du soleil mais aussi il la salit lorsque les fruits (que je découvre sur ta photo, on dirait des chenilles dodues et poilues, bouac) tombent.

Jilly said...

Beautiful photograph. I've never seen the fruit before. I love these trees, the way they are trimmed to grow horizonatal branches that meet the next tree and so form a perfect shade. To me they absolutely 'say' Provence.

They are also useful as I believe the leaves are used to feed silkworms. Remember at school we learned that and had the obligatory box of silkworms and mulberry leaves to prove it. (Oh just read other comments confirming this).

Nathalie H.D. said...

Thanks to all for your remarkably varied comments about the mulberry tree and fruit.
It looks like we've got absolutely every case from those who haven't heard of this tree, know the tree but haven't tasted the fruit, love the fruit, don't like the fruit, hate the messy stains that the fruit make...

I remember the song "here we go round the mulberry bush" well, but before researching the topic for this blogpost I had never made the connection between mulberry bush in English and "murier platane" in French - hadn't realised it was the same tree.

There is a sterile version of this tree which is excellent for providing a thick shade in car parks or in gardens over eating areas because it avoids the black stains that the fruit make.

Dina said...

It reminds me of adventures when my kids were little, here in Israel.
We would go to a wild mulberry tree, eat some of its fruit, and then harvest leaves as food for our silk worms. I think every family had to go through the silk worms in a shoebox project, along with tadpole raising.

Thérèse said...

They must not be fun to have at home because of the stains. I had no clue that these berries were from trees but the jam is sooooo good.
Tu as éclairé ma lanterne une fois de plus.

Dimple said...

We had a sterile mulberry tree, or maybe two, in the back yard of a house in California where I lived while growing up. The shade was great! However, I had never seen the berries until today, and I wondered about them. Now I wonder if I could grow one in Idaho...I have never seen one in my area.

Nathalie said...

I am amazed that in many countries the silkworm in a shoebox project seems such a standard. I've never heard of it being done in France despite the fact that silk worms were a big industry here in Provence in the 19th century.

spacedlaw said...

Il me semble que le mulberry est la nourriture préférée des vers à soie... Je ne crois pas en avoir jamais vu.

Rosie said...

They grow in Spain even in the abandoned villages in the mountains. The berries are delicious and turn your hands purple!

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