Fuel Ghoul: Toronto's Messy Mulberry Sidewalks.

Mulberry trees make messy sidewalks in this city, and the purple paths underneath their fruitful boughs epitomize everything that’s wrong with urban society today.

Mulberry (Morus) is a genus of deciduous trees native to North America, but found all over the world (the leaves of the white mulberry tree are the sole source of food for silkworms). Many residential lawns in Toronto host black mulberry trees, which thrive in our climate. So why do we completely ignore this wholesome fruit?

The Life of a Mulberry Tree

Mulberry trees grow fast when they’re young, but after a few years the growth slows – the adult tree rarely exceeds twelve meters in height. Mulberries can be grown from seed, which is advised as seedling-grown trees often have a better shape and are healthier. The trees take about eight years to mature.

Mulberries are delicious

The fruit is almost two centimeters long, dark purple to black, edible, with a sweet flavour. In pioneer times these berries were a wholesome addition to pies, tarts, jams and jellies, wines and cordials. The fruit of the black mulberry has the strongest flavour. Each adult tree can produce a massive amount of fruit – one Mulberry tree will produce an equivalent to an acre of strawberries and three acres of raspberries.

Mulberries are good for you

The mature berry contains significant amounts of resveratrol. David Sinclair of the Harvard Medical School, and cofounder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, has found that resveratrol increases the activity of a protein called SIRT1. Resveratrol increases the lifespan of mice, and there’s hope that it could do the same for humans.

An unfortunate pollen problem

Some North American cities have banned mulberry trees altogether because of the massive amounts of pollen they produce. One report made in El Paso Texas describes pollen counts above 1,500 – and that’s potentially dangerous to some people. According to El Paso's local botanists, mulberry trees can produce between 395 to 10,205 spores per day - nearly four times higher than the city’s second most prolific tree, the juniper or cedar. El Paso’s City Council banned planting new mulberry trees in 1992 because they'd received so darn many complaints.

The Mulberry Mystery

The unripe fruit and green parts of the plant have a white sap that’s said to be intoxicating and mildly hallucinogenic. According to Peterson’s Field Guide for Medicinal Plants, 1990, Native Americans made medicine from the roots and used Mulberry sap to treat ringworm. Mulberry wood makes excellent fence posts - the wood doesn’t easily decay in the ground. This mysterious plant still has many secrets to share – its composition is radically different than every other species of tree in North America.

Why no mulberries on the market?

Fuel Ghoul has attended strawberry socials, and pear harvest parties and they’re both a lot of fun. I’ve paid over six bucks a quart for raspberries, and more than five dollars a pint for blackcaps (black raspberries) and quite often this fruit is imported from California. Black cherries are imported from the Okanogan Valley in British Columbia sell for over three bucks a kilogram in downtown Toronto fruit markets. So why are there no mulberries for sale? This fruit is just as tasty as those top selling summer classics, and its grown right here in the city.

A Mulberry Festival could make millions

Why don’t we plan annual social events around the mulberry harvest? Any street in Toronto, with mulberry trees planted along its sidewalks and a crew of students well paid to harvest each summer’s bounty, could host a million dollar Mulberry Festival each July. Imagine meeting friends on Mulberry Street to eat a slice of mulberry pie adorned with mulberry flavoured ice cream and smothered in sweet black mulberry sauce. The occasion could produce mass tourism dollars, and build community. Such events often become world famous in a short amount of time. Even more attractive is the idea of living closer to nature; a mulberry festival would help develop an urban food source for everyone’s benefit. Instead of walking across purple sidewalks and bemoaning the presence of this ‘nuisance fruit’ in our neighbourhood, we should embrace the mulberry tree and all its delicious mysteries.