The Red Mulberry (also called the Black Mulberry), botanically known as Morus rubra L, is native to North America. The White Mulberry, botanically known as Morus alba L., has leaves that are cultivated as food for silkworms. It was introduced to this country and now is commonly found on old homesteads throughout the Eastern United States.
Ripe mulberries are very juicy, and very, very seedy. While making mulberry jelly, you can spend a lot of time waiting for the juice to drip through the jelly cloth typically used the strain the seeds. One shortcut is to extract the juice from the berries by using an electric juicer with a fine mesh strainer. It works great and shortens the process considerably. The shortcut may also increase the amount of pectin in the juice, resulting in jelly with a much firmer texture.
If you end up with a batch of mulberry jelly that doesn't jell completely, don't toss it. It's delicious when used as syrup over vanilla ice cream or stirred into sparkling water or ale.
Many old-timers have delicious childhood memories of mulberries. Red Hook, N.Y. Village Historian Richard Coons remembers being sent as a child to pick up fallen mulberries from beneath the trees so his grandmother could make jelly in a large round copper kettle that was kept simmering outside over a fire. His reward was her sweet mulberry pie. His adaptation of his grandmother’s pie recipe is shared here.
Mulberry Pie recipe
- Your favorite 2-crust pie pastry recipe
- 5 cups ripe mulberries (pick and wash them using these tips)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon butter, cut in small pieces
- Prepare pastry. Roll out and place bottom crust in pie plate. Set aside. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix the mulberries, lemon juice and grated lemon peel and set aside.
- In another bowl, mix flour and sugar, then add this to mulberries. Pour mixture over the bottom crust in pie plate.
- Dot mixture with the butter pieces.
- Cover with the top pastry crust and make a decorative edge. Make a few slashes on top crust so steam can escape when the pie is baking.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
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