I love this time of year in Brisbane. It’s just warm enough for swimming, but still a pleasant temperature for taking a walk along Brisbane’s many beautiful walking tracks. Spring flowers are starting to bloom and you’ll see frangipani flowers beginning to unfurl.
Frangipani Flower Brisbane
One of my favourite Brisbane trees is the Mulberry because of its delicious fruit. You might see them leaning over fences, on spare allotments once occupied by old houses, or sometimes growing wild. The fruit is ripe when it’s a deep purple colour, almost black. Beware though, they do stain. If your fingers become stained with Mulberry juice, pick an unripe fruit (very pale red colour) and rub it on the stain. My backyard tree has been giving us fruit for a few weeks now, enough to make a yummy mulberry pie.
Mulberries
Filed under: Walks | Tagged: Brisbane, frangipani, mulberry, spring, walking |
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I grew up in Nudgee and my aunt lived next door – she had a giant mulberry tree and, even though I hated the things, we would pick them everyday after school – mostly for the purpose of squishing the juice all over ourselves. I remember my mother, rubbing my hands with green mulberries until they were red trying to get that stain off 🙂
Yes, I remember spending a lot of the mulberry season with purple feet. I even tried using mulberry juice as a fabric dye for a high school art project – works well!
I pruned my dwarf black mulberry earlier in the year and stuck the cut off branches in a couple of pots. They’re now growing tiny, bright green leaves, so I’m planting a few more out in my garden (we all love eating mulberries) and giving some of the new trees away (just like our grandmas and aunts used to do).
Oh yes Mulberries!!! My grandfather had quite a few mulberry trees at Nundah. So loved eating them and then yes remember Mum rubbing the green mulberries to get the stain off! Oh thanks so much for bringing back the wonderful memories.
From memory to – don’t silk worms love the leaves. I think that is what we put in my shoe box. Wonder if kids these days still have silk worms?
Thanks for a lovely walk down memory lane.
Hi Memory Lane. Yes, mulberries play a big part in my memories of childhood too. I’m happy to say the dwarf mulberry tree I planted last year has given us many bowls of mulburries recently – even enough to make a small pie. Yum! In answer to your question about silk worms, I have some in the house at this very moment. We’ve been babysitting them for a local Prep class and I’m returning them today. You can read about them on my new blog: http://www.brisbaneandbeyond.com.au
Cheers, Dianne
Does anybody know where around the Toombul/Nundah area i can find a mulberry tree? My young adult children have never tried a mulberry 😦
I don’t know the location of any mature street trees in your area, but I’d ask a local year 1 or prep teacher. They often have silk worms in the classroom and have to chase down fresh mulberry leaves. I bought my first dwarf black mulberry tree at the Edible Landscapes Nursery in the Northey Street City Farm, Corner of Northey St & Victoria St, Windsor. It gave us fruit within 6 months and you can grow more trees from cuttings. http://www.nscf.org.au/edible-landscapes-nursery-2/
I was wondering if you found a mulberry tree on the northside of Brisbane. I want to keep silkworms with my class but need to source a tree.
Marie
My 4yr old grandson has silkworms and we are looking for anyone who will let us pick their mulberry leaves, close to Stafford Heights. Thanks’