Mulberry , the tree and the jam

For the most part, we ignored the sapling that grew without any additional care. It felt like it was simply embracing the new surrounding. Signalling its presence, the ants heeded and arrived in bunches to inspect the plant. We brought it from Belagola, a small village town in Mysore where my then employer/colleague's father had a farm. We had just finished the drawing stage of her farmhouse &  I had spoken in length about Mr. Ramakrishana Kampalappa, Shruthi's father with my own parents. Rama uncle is an avid organic farmer who had by then retired from holding a respectable position in the Karnataka Horticulture department and started his own organic farm training and market at a local scale in Mysore. 

I had taken my father and mother to be introduced to Rama uncle. Enough to say, we came back with a car loaded with saplings, seeds and books. 

The Mulberry sapling was just one among them.

Commonly known as பட்டுப்பூச்சி மரம் in tamil, it is most often cultivated in Tamilnadu & Karnataka regions as a fodder plant for silk worms. Somehow through the silk route, Tippu sultan and Rama uncle we now have a few mulberry trees spreading its roots in our land.

  

 

Watching the tiny berrys-lings sprouting , silk was the last thing on our mind. One would think when the berries turn red, they have ripened, but, it the darkest black ones that are the juiciest. Initially we just had a handful whenever we stopped to gather them. Slowly the reds started catching our eyes more and more, making it impossible to ignore them! Soon we had our bowl full, even after having enough of themd directly from the tree. Now obviously we have fallen for its temptations and started imagining relishing it in innumerable ways. 

 Yes mulberry jam was our first.

 

 ~ The recipe ~

 

    Ingredients 

1. Mulberries - 1 cup (at least) 
2. Cane sugar or Jaggery
3. Lemon - half

 

 

 

Step 1 : Cleaning

 Try as you might, if you've sourced from an organic farm, it is necessary to wash them with slightly warm water mixed with lemon or apple cider vinegar. Ours had bits of mealy bugs in them and the mulberries being tender gets all squishy if you'd attempt at scraping. 

Step 2: Boiling

In a heavy bottomed pan, bring the mulberries to a boil. I mean eventually. They turn soggy first and then mushy. To add to this you could use a wooden masher to smash it up even more. This process is more fun than necessary. 

Step 3: Adding sweetness

Adding sweeteners are an important step in preservation in addition to the fruit having its own sweetness. We used jaggery and continued to let it boil for a while more on low flame, mixing consistently until the watery mixture turns thick and glossy.

 

 

Step 4 : Waiting

This is the most important step in cooking I would say in general. This would be my inner paati speaking but I think she's right. The slow exchange of the flavours as they are cooked is a chemistry in itself to be simply allowed. 

Step 4 : Cooling

Once you're satisfied with the consistency you let it cool down. You could now add a dash of lemon juice to get the tang in the sweet berry jam and mix well again.

There, done! Now all you need is a well baked bread to go with it. You can bottle this up, once it cools down to the room temperature, and store it for about a week I'd say.

 

 

 

 

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