Mulberry harvest: mulberry shrub / mulberry and mint fizz

I went on my first harvest with the Somerville League of Urban Canners on Saturday. We collected mulberries. Mulberries are beautiful fruit - they look like little, slim blackberries but grow on trees and have a taste all of their own (and come in red, white or black) - and the North American ones are, in my opinion, the best. A group of eight went out on bikes with tarps and hooks on long poles, and came back with 67 lb of mulberries from three trees. Seriously awesome: a wonderful day.

Everyone was talking about shrub, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I used this simple recipe. Most of the berries I brought home (about 3 lb total) went to jam (to return to LUrC), but I took out a couple of cups for experiments - this and pickled berries.

Mulberry shrub
(Made a quarter of this recipe - ended up with ~ 1 1/2 cups of shrub)

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 cups mulberries
2 cups red wine vinegar

Put sugar and water in a saucepan and heat, while stirring, until the sugar has all dissolved. Add mulberries and bring to the boil. Boil, while mashing the berries with a fork, for about 10 min. Add vinegar, bring to the boil and boil for about 2 min. Remove from the heat, drain, allow to cool, and then decant into a glass jar or bottle and store in the fridge.


Mulberry and mint fizz

~2 tbsp mulberry shrub
leaves from 1 sprig of mint
2 cups fizzy water


Interesting. I find the vinegary taste a bit too distracting. Less so when fizzy and minty.