It’s mulberry season here in the South! We added these tasty little berries to our foraging list last year, and my only regret is that we didn’t discover them sooner. They look like blackerries, but they taste a lot sweeter and they don’t have any thorns.

We went picking last night, so I thought I’d show you how it’s done.

Mulberry trees can get quite tall, so you have to get a bit creative to get at the fruit. The common approach is to cover the ground with sheets, and then climb the tree to shake the branches, until all the ripe berries fall out.

To avoid climbing, we devised our own system.

My husband took 50 feet of rope, tied a knot in the end of it; and then pushed the knot through a hole that he drilled through the side of a tennis ball.

This gave us something that we could throw up and over a branch. We tested it out yesterday, and it worked beautifully. We just grab both ends of the rope, and shake.

Once all of the ripe berries have fallen. We collect them from the sheet, and then move on to the next branch. Pretty easy, really; and it results in lots of free fruit.

Want to try your hand at foraging for mulberries? Here’s some information to help you identify mulberry trees in your community.