Mulberries are a well known and popular wild urban edible that a lot of foragers come to know early in the development of the craft. They are easily identifiable, taste great, and prolific in urban and peri-urban environments which means lots of people can get to know them. Not only are there an abundant of Mulberry trees out there, each fruit producing tree makes buckets of fruit that litter the sidewalks for a month if the birds, squirrels, Raccoons and humans don’t get at them first. And while Mulberries don’t seem like a political focal point in the world of conservation, I am learning that they can be as well.
I got to visit with my friend Matt Soltys (The Urban Orchardist) to discuss Mulberries and their ecology. We sat in a small backyard cabin adjacent to his Mulberry tree to keep out of the rain and got into some big questions : How many species actually grow around the Great Lakes bioregion? Where does hybridization come in clutch in the context of global change and massive anthropogenic disturbance of the landscape? Are conventional conversations around conservation xenophobic and colonial or do they uplift and support decolonial efforts to retain ancestral cultural and land based relations? While we don’t have the answers, I think these are important questions to be asking.
Additionally, near the end of the podcast we discuss Sam Thayer’s new book Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America⁠ out now from Forager’s Harvest.
Big thanks to Matt Soltys of The Urban Orchardist for taking the time to be on the show and sharing his research and ideas.
To learn more : The Urban OrchardistMatt’s InstagramSam Thayer's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America