The Elusive Mulberry

I just realized, in retrospect, that I neglected to mention another favorite berry of mine in my post yesterday on berries.  Today I would like to introduce the often under-rated, perhaps even unknown, but, nevertheless, delicious, mulberry.  The mulberry, a fairly recent discovery of mine, can be eaten fresh or dried.  Dried mulberries, which are very sweet, by-the-way, can be easily purchased online.  Fresh mulberries, which have a juicy sweet-tart flavor, are a challenge to locate.

I was introduced to mulberries about 6 years ago when I discovered a package of dried Turkish white mulberries at a local health food store.  I knew that mulberries were reputed to be a fairly decent yin tonic in TCM.  I decided to buy them and give them a try.  I ended up adding them to trail mix.  I liked the pleasant crunchy butterscotch-like flavor so much that I bought a package of dried purple mulberries in no time.  Since then they have become a favorite snack food.  In fact, I snacked on some today.

Since the mulberry, a native of Asia, grows well here in southern California you would think that fresh mulberries would be fairly easy to locate.  They are not.  Unless, someone on your street happens to have a mulberry tree growing, which would be very convenient, locating fresh mulberries often takes serious foraging skills.  I love a challenge.

I have been on a couple of mulberry "wild goose chases", as the saying goes.  My best luck has been at farmer's markets.  So far I have discovered two fresh varieties, a dark purple and a white variety, on foraging trips to the Ojai farmer's markets.  Mulberries are highly seasonal.  In fact, they are in season now.  So if you see them - grab them while you can.

Health Benefits of Mulberries from a Traditional Chinese Medicine Perspective:

• Cooling thermal nature

• Sweet flavor

• Builds Yin fluids and blood

• Moistens the lungs

• Strengthens the liver and kidneys

• Treats wind conditions

• Benefits fluid dryness

Health Benefits of Mulberries from a Western Perspective:

• Mulberries have significantly high amounts of phenolic flavonoid phytochemicals called anthocyanins. Scientific studies have shown that consumption of berries have potential health effects against cancer, aging and neurological diseases, inflammation, diabetes, and bacterial infections.
  
• Mulberries contain resveratrol, another polyphenol flavonoid antioxidant.
  
• Mulberries are an excellent source of vitamin-C (36.4 mg per 100, about 61% of RDI).
  
• Mulberries contain small amounts of vitamin A, vitamin E.
  
• Zea-xanthin, an important dietary carotenoid selectively concentrates into the retinal macula lutea, where it thought to provide antioxidant functions and protects the retina from the harmful ultraviolet rays through light-filtering actions.
  
• Mulberries are an excellent source of iron, which is a rare feature among berries, contain 1.85 mg/100 g of fruits (about 23% of RDI).