Mulberry, cranberry, wheatberry, walnut

All these berries seemed so coincidental - the wheatberries, the dried berries, the pickled berries, even the berry molasses appeared just when I was about to get out the honey. I am gradually plundering my cupboardful of preserves - these juicy pickled mulberries were from the first harvest of last year. So, salad or grain, either way, this is nice.

1 cup wheatberries, cooked until tender in ~ 2 cups water
~1 tbsp white miso
~1 tbsp mulberry molasses
~2 tbsp mulberry vinegar (from the pickled mulberries, top up with red wine vinegar if you don't have enough)
~2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
~20 pickled mulberries
~1/4 cup walnut pieces
~2 tbsp dried cranberries
~1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
~2 tsp cacao nibs (optional)

Put the wheatberries on to cook, and in the meantime prepare all the other ingredients. To make the dressing, whisk the miso, mulberry molasses, vinegar, olive oil and some salt and pepper together in a small bowl and taste to check balance. Put the cooked wheatberries in a serving bowl and add the dressing. Toss and let cool a little. Add the pickled mulberries, walnuts, cranberries, parsley and cacao, mix up and taste to check seasoning etc. Eat warm or cold.

Peaches, mulberries, honey and thyme

I got into using herbs with fruit when I was WWOOFing in NZ. We had a big pile of figs grabbed from a tree belonging to a friend of the smallholders I was staying with, and I couldn't get the idea of baking them with rosemary and a drizzle of honey out of my head. That place was also where I first used a dehydrator, and the only place I have ever eaten feijoa straight from the tree (mm mm mm).

Anyway, we bought some peaches from the Egleston farmers' market at the weekend and I had high hopes for them. But they turned out disappointing - the kind that go brown in patches instead of ripening juicily. So I thought I'd stew them. With thyme, because I still love aromatic herbs with summer fruit. And mulberries, because peaches and mulberries sounded incredibly enticing and seasonal, and I am still desperately trying to use up all these little odds and ends (such as a tub of mulberries) from my freezer.

2 peaches, washed, destoned and chunkily sliced
handful of frozen mulberries (and/or blueberries)
~1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp honey

Put all in a small pan, cover and stew for ~10 min, until the peaches are tender and sweet. Good with coconut kefir or something similarly yoghurty, or custard, or as a pseudo crumble.

More mulberries: dried

Another mulberry harvest, this time I led it. We went to 4 places on Sunday afternoon. It was hot. The first two were not very productive, but the last two were good. Ended up with about 10lb, but didn't feel like doing anything involving standing over a bubbling cauldron (I was a little off colour). I took maybe a third of them and dried them in the dehydrator (135F for ~48 hours). Ended up with about 450ml of dried berries. They became quite dry and almost crispy, but the flavour is sweet and intense when it hits, after the initial textural surprise.

Baking with jam: chocolate-mulberry buns and mulberry-thyme (GF) biscuits

After the mulberry harvest I did a couple of weeks ago, I ended up with more mulberry jam than I could possibly use (some that I made myself, and some that came to me as my share from the larger quantity the others jammed). I decided this was an opportunity for baking with jam: jam tarts were a childhood favourite, and I used to make a jammy gingerbread to use up odds and ends of abandoned jam when clearing out the fridge in shared houses. I was thinking of making jam tarts, but then I remembered a recipe for thumbprint cookies I saw recently, and decided they might be a less faffy equivalent (++I have some beautiful thyme growing on my roof that I am not using enough). Also, they were gluten-free, so I could share them with A. I came across Nigella's choc-cherry cupcake recipe while thinking about jam baking, so decided to test-veganise that as well.

Mulberry, rose and thyme biscuits
(makes ~12)

100g olive oil
1/4 cup / 50g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp chopped, fresh thyme leaves
1 cup TJs GF flour mix
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup almond meal
approx 1/4 cup (60ml) mulberry jam, mixed with rosewater (1/2-1 tsp) and honey to taste*

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Grease 1 large baking tray. Mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder and almond meal in a medium bowl with a fork. Beat oil, sugar, vanilla and thyme in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry, and mix / knead until well combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough between your hands to make flattened balls, then make an indentation in each with your thumb and place on the prepared baking tray. Fill each with some of the jam mixture and bake for 10-12 min, or until slightly golden. Leave to cool on the tray.

*Added sweetness will depend on the jam used: traditionally-made jam like the stuff I make is plenty sweet already and needs no extra sweetening. But if the jam has been made with less reduction of the fruit and less sugar / more added pectin it may be less sweet (like the one made by the LUrC crew) and, in my opinion, need a little more sugar.

Chocolate-mulberry muffins
(makes 12)

6 tbsp / 90 ml refined coconut oil (liquid state)
4 oz dark chocolate (broken into pieces)
1 ¼ cups mulberry jam
1/2 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin. Heat the coconut oil in a medium pan. When hot, turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Leave for a moment, then stir with a wooden spoon until smooth and melted. Add the jam, sugar, salt, linseed mixture and vinegar. Mix, then stir in the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Fill the muffin cups and bake for 25 min. Cool in the tin for 10 min before removing and leaving to cool on a rack.


These were both experiments. I thought the choc-jam muffins were the successes at first: they rose surprisingly well, with a good consistency. While I thought the biscuits were disasters: many of them split while baking, and the dough was very crumbly (might need to add more oil or some milk?). But people seemed to love the taste of the biscuits despite their appearance (I fed some to S, and took some to a brunch - where en route they got even more bashed up riding around on the potholes aka streets of Greater Boston on the back of my bike), while the muffins were fine but not as well-received.

Mulberry harvest: mulberry and orange jam

I kind of thought I had taken more berries: was thinking of trying dehydrating too. After looking at so many all day my sense of scale was completely screwed. Anyway, I ended up with about 3 lb that needed using quickly - I strapped them to the back of my bike and they dripped a trail of black juice that looked like engine oil through three plastic bags and a (broken) plastic tub. Mulberries seem to be low pectin, so I decided to include orange in the hope of improving the set (and because I thought it might taste interesting). I was a little nervous about getting good results as I knew I needed to return some jam to LUrC.

(makes ~ 3 medium jars)

3 lb mulberries
1 orange
2.6 lb sugar

Wash mulberries (don't bother removing the little stems) and put them in a large pan. Try and include some of the somewhat underripe ones (red / white / greenish) as these will help with set (mulberries are low in pectin). Add the juice and grated zest of the orange. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30-60 min, until the berries are quite well broken down and the volume is reduced. Add the sugar and boil fast until setting point is reached (30-60 min). Let cool for ~10 min, then transfer to sterilised jars and leave to cool.


Hmm, I slightly overboiled it because of my nerves and it ended up crystallising slightly. Bums. This has only happened to me once before. I am embarrassed.

Mulberry harvest: pickled mulberries

Second experiment with my mulberry bounty was pickled mulberries: I fancied making something savoury, this idea came into my head, and I liked it. I used this recipe.

Pickled Mulberries
(quantities below would make 3 smallish jars (the official canning style of jars) - I did only one cup of mulberries' worth though)

2 cups mulberries
3/8 cup white vinegar
3/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 small bay leaf

Put the berries in dumpy, sterilised jars. Put the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour over the berries, so that the vinegar reaches to 1/8 in below the top. Put the lids on and screw on (but not too tight). Bring a large pan of water with a rack in it to the boil. Put the jars in, bring back to the boil and keep at a simmer for 10 min. Remove the jars carefully and allow to cool.


Mulberry Salad Dressing

1 tbsp pickled mulberries - make sure to include some berries and some vinegar
1 tbsp azuki bean miso
1/2 tbsp tahini
1 tsp honey
1/2 tbsp mirin

Mix all the ingredients together in the bottom of a salad bowl to make the dressing. Add washed lettuce leaves, chopped tomatoes and a sprinkling of sesame seeds, toss and eat.


These are interesting. I opened one jar immediately out of curiosity, and they are bright pink and lovely. Quite vinegary (perhaps they will mellow over time?) and a little sweet, and unavoidably reminiscent of pickled beetroot. Thought they worked really well in the salad dressing: the azuki bean miso is also pinkish (-red-brown), so the dressing comes out really pink as well as really tasty.

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.