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[HOST INTRO] It’s berry season. Area farmers’ markets are chocked full of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. But there’s one berry at the Capital City Public Market in Boise that many of us know only through nursery rhythms. In this installment of the Market & Garden Report, correspondent Guy Hand tries the sung-about-but-seldom-eaten mulberry.
(Mulberry Music) (Hand) It’s not that mulberries aren’t tasty. They are. And they’re not rare or hard to grow. Mulberry trees sprout where ever their seeds fall. And the resulting 30 to 60 foot high plants are prolific. What mulberries aren’t are easy to get to market.
(Bart Rayne) The picking is really fragile. They shatter really easy, they fall off of the tree.
Bart Rayne of Next Generation Organics with boxes of mulberries
(Hand) That’s Bart Rayne. He and his wife Elayne of Next Generation Organics in Homedale are here at the Capital City Public Market selling delicately picked and packaged mulberries.
(Bart) You gotta be really careful picking them. And so they don’t transport, they don’t really travel really well, so we pick ‘em right into these little containers, we can get a lid right on ‘em and then bring ‘em to the market, put them on display and that’s as few steps as we can get in there.
(Hand) Farmers’ markets provide the perfect and often only outlet for short season, fragile and unusual foods — like mulberries.
(Hand) So can you tell me what they look like and what they taste like. (Rayne) We almost equate it to like a Concord grape, they’re just a really mild flavor and not a lot of tartness really like a lot of other berries. They look a lot like a black berry or like a logan berry, just real mild so they lend to a lot of different preparations it seems like.
Elayne Rayne of Next Generation Organics at the Capital City Public Market in Boise
(Hand) Can I taste one? (Rayne) Yeah, please. (Hand) It is really good, it’s very subtle, but tasty. I can see how it would make great sauces or jams. (Rayne) Yeah.
(Hand) Mulberries can also be made into wines, syrups or just eaten out of hand. They make natural food and fabric dies and their leaves are that famous favorite of silkworms. The Raynes found mulberries just growing on their land.
(Bart) We lived there for probably a couple of years before we even realized we had these trees on the property. You know, we were back there with some friends and it was just like wow this tree has tons of berries on it.
(Hand) The Raynes had to do a little research before realizing their mysterious found fruit was mulberry. Elayne Rayne:
(Elayne) We just love that the tree was there when we moved in that we didn’t have to plant it, we don’t have to do a whole lot of maintaining. It’s just kind of a gift that was there. It’s unusual and people are always really intrigued by it, which is fun.
(Hand) Farmers’ markets give small producers like the Raynes the chance to turn backyard surprises into marketable produce. But the mulberry season is short. Tomorrow may be the last Saturday the Raynes have their nursery rhythm berries at Boise’s Capital City Public Market.
(Mulberry music)
(Hand) For the Market & Garden Report and Boise State Public Radio, I’m Guy Hand.
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Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture. |
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