I love living in Virginia at this time of year.  Growing up in south Texas, just about the only food items that grew “wild” were pecans and cactus, and contrary to the imaginings of Hollywood, prickly pear aren’t all that common in San Antonio. (I also don’t think they’re particularity tasty.)  Around here, in addition to pecans and other nut trees, we also have a large number of wild berry bushes.  Blackberry and mulberry are seem to be the most common.  The park near our house has a plethora of mulberry bushes and this time of year, they are literally dripping from the trees.  They grow so well that since we’ve let the back 10 feet of our backyard go “wild” we’ve had four mulberry trees take root.  (A blackberry bush seems to have set up shop in my front garden, though the fruit has yet to ripen.) 

When we take our daily walk to the park, the children dash ahead, to be the first to reach the bushes, and eagerly begin shoving fistfuls into their mouths.  They come home stained purple and smiling.  It’s never easy to tell what is going to create lasting memories.  I suspect that those things are somewhat random, but these feel like the things that childhood memories are made of.

Once a critical mass of berries have built up on the branches, I head out the park, old sheet in hand.  After spreading it out on the ground, we gleefully shake the branches and gather up what falls.  If I’ve timed it just right, we get enough for a pie.  This year I was a little off, so I made syrup instead.

This is a pretty forgiving recipe.  We had picked about two cups of mulberries.  You need to wash them off and pick out anything that might have fallen off the tree with the berries.  When I make a pie I go to the rather considerable effort to pull all the stems off the berries, but for syrup that is not necessary.  Add half as much sugar as berries, in this case 1 cup.  I prefer raw sugar for this, it has a bit more complex flavor that complements that tartness of the berries.  I added water equal to the amount of berries.  I think that next time I’d do slightly less and reduce the boiling time.

Next step: Boil!  and boil and boil and boil, until it starts to thicken and the sugar begins to caramelize.  The volume should reduce by a third to a half, depending on how much water you put in.

This is my set up for straining the berries and stems out of the syrup.

Serve and enjoy! (Seen here over my sweet potato pancakes.)  It will keep for quite some time in the fridge.  I can’t say exactly how long, it’s never gone uneaten that long.