Who even knew they existed?

Mulberries that is.

The fabled song line “We all go round the Mulberry Bush, the Mulberry Bush, the Mulberry Bush. We all go ‘round the Mulberry Bush and then we all fall down” is about as far as mulberries existed in my world………

…..that is until my oh so observant Mom heard about them on a gardening radio show a couple of years ago. The elusive mulberry is hardly ever sold on the grocery store shelf, hence the need to grow your own. So, although Mom is a closet gardener, the idea of growing one intrigued her enough to stick one in the ground and see what happened. And, this happened…

…A huge tree only 2 years later. It was so easy and was so fun! I am a fanatic over all things berry, so luckily when I was home in May I enjoyed their ever so brief season. We picked for the month and overnight, they were gone. Eating straight off the tree is when they were at their best, but creatively Elizabeth and I froze them in ice cubes for cute party décor.

Along with mulberries, I also got my hands dirty with strawberries. Yes, May being another good season for strawberries in MS left me with cheap flats of the luscious goodness to work with. I jammed enough to make six cute little containers of beautiful pink jam. But this time I focused on perfecting my low-sugar-good-for-you jamming methods. I discovered this really awesome pectin: Pomona’s that works without sugar (As most do, hence why such a high sugar content is required) and instead calcium. I left MS without tasting the finished product, but all I used was berries and a small amount of organic cane sugar and the gelling was perfect! Man!, I love this kind of stuff.