The Mulberry Tree in My Front Yard

It`s been a long time since I have written anything here, but I have been feeling the inspiration again lately. It might be all the sunshine!

A very short update: I have been an English teacher on the JET Program in a lovely village in Nagano prefecture since August of last year. I plan on being here another year or two. I live a very "Inaka" lifestyle. However, I have the great luck of living within half an hour of

Matsumoto City. Being a teacher is rewarding and having the chance to live in Japan again has been wonderful! My house is sizable with an enormous yard. Nagano is a wonderful place full of natural beauty and fascinating history. As far as the gastronomic

al world goes, living in Nagano has afforded me the chance to try many new foods and relish in a veritable cornucopia of local fruits and vegetables. This year has seen me planting my first garden. I have eggplants, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, bush beans, zuchinni and kabocha. Every day brings an entertaining adventure or experience.

The mulberry tree in my front yard

A week ago, black berries began falling from the tree in my front yard. They looked delicious,but my better senses warned me about eating anything wild that I was unfamiliar with. What if they were poison berries! I sure k

new that the birds were eating them by the blueish splatters all over my driveway and house! Until

a couple of days ago, I resisted the temptation to give them a try. That is, until one of my young neighbors asked if she could pick a couple! "What are they," I asked. "Kuwazumi," she replied. A quick look on Jim Breen`s WWWJDIC (the holy grail of Japanese dictionaries), revealed that there was a mulberry tree growing in my front yard!

The berries are plump and juicy. Their flavor is sometimes sweet and sometimes sour, but always delicious. If I forget to pick them with the most gentle of touches, sticky purple juice drips down my arms. My nail-beds, and garden boots are stained blue. But this is the mark of enjoying my surroundings.

The mulberry tree is fertile and full. There are enough berries for me to eat my fill, bake a new dish every night, freeze berries for future use and leave some for the birds!

Last night I baked a cobbler with freshly picked mulberries.

Recipe for Mulberry Cobbler

Needed

2 cups mulberries, de-stemmed

1/4 cup melted butter (or 1/8th cup, if you are trying to lay off the butter)

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup flour

2tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1/8 cup sugar to sprinkle on top

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (~180C)

2. Mix sugar, flour, baking powder and milk

3. Pour melted butter into a baking pan ( even better, melt the butter in the pan while preheating the oven)

4. pour batter into the pan. do not mix with the butter.

5. pour the berries over the batter. If the berries are very tart, sprinkle more sugar over the top.

6. bake for half an hour, or until the batter has risen and has formed a nice crust.

This batter works well for any fruit. One of my favorite cobblers is peach and blueberry. The only difference is that you adjust the amount of sugar based on the sweetness of your fruit!