Thursday, May 10, 2012

Foraging for Mulberries


Talking with some friends about foraging recently reminded me of this post, written a couple years back, but still holding true as our favorite annual urban foraging tradition...

The neighborhood climbing tree, a mulberry tree, or as I’ve started calling it “the giving tree” is one of our favorite places…
Early spring we start stalking our favorite neighborhood tree, waiting for that perfect moment of ripeness.

Mmmmmmm....

This year we weren't disappointed, our annual spring tradition of urban foraging yielded a plump and juicy harvest.

Fresh picked!
 So what to do with all that delicious fruit? Every year we land on the same idea, trying to recall our mulberry ice cream recipe (every year we make it up.) I was determined this time to find the right one. Possibly inspired by dueling recipes with Ned, I came up with what I consider to be perfection. And special perfection on my boy's chocolatey moist birthday cake.
Waiting patiently...
Here is what I came up with, an adaptation from David Lebovitz “The Perfect Scoop” recipe:
Mulberry Ice Cream:
2 quarts of mulberries (blended in a food processor then mashed through a sieve)
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
After straining berries you will have a thick purple liquid, let it cool then mix together ingredients and chill before freezing in ice cream maker.

So do you have a secret foraging spot? And what do you do with all those delicious mulberries?

1 comment:

  1. Perfect! I have an old Mulberry tree in the back corner of my yard that I never get to in time. I going out there first thing in the morning!!

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