Picking Mulberries: A How-Did Guide

I'm hardly qualified to show you how to pick mulberries, but I can show you how I did it. Thus, the How-Did Guide.

1. Let them get ripe

My mulberry trees usually get ripe fruit in late May and continue through early July. That's over a month of almost-always ripe mulberries. The mulberries ripen in stages, so you'll never see them all ready at once.

These branches have some ripe ones, so it's time to start picking*.

Mulberries ripening is stages.

It's time to pick these mulberries.

2. Spread a mulberry catcher

Spoiler alert: mulberries are about to fall. To catch them, I use a tarp or an old sheet. Just spread it under the branch you're about to work on.

Spread a sheet or tarp under the mulberry tree to catch berries.

3. Shake the branches with a reacher

Hoes, tomato stakes, and old pieces of molding from a kitchen remodel all make great reachers for high branches. Just give the branch a few taps or a gentle shake and you're done. If you think this is a good time to impress someone with you're karate chopping skills, it isn't.

Use a hoe or a stake to shake high mulberry branches.

And if the branch is lower than your face, don't use a reacher. You will look ridiculous.

Shake low mulberry branches by hand.

4. Watch the mulberries fall on the catcher

One thing about mulberries: they know when to let go. The more ripe they are, the easier they will fall off, leaving the rest to hang on til next time.

Ripe mulberries will fall on the sheet.

As long as the majority of them fall on the catcher, you are good to go**.

This sure beats picking mulberries one at a time.

This can be good time to remove any major debris that may have fallen with the berries.

5. Dump the mulberries into a bucket

I usually fold the corners of my catcher up to make a chute, and in the bucket they go.

Dump the mulberries in a bucket.

Buckets of ripe mulberries!

6. Get excited

After repeating those steps a few times, I ended up with a lot more than I expected. It's time to get excited! But don't get too excited and run your hands down in the mulberries to scoop them up. They'll just bust and make a mess.

Mulberries!

7. Rinse them

A colander and water hose come in handy right about now. Rinse the mulberries, toss them into a clean container, and there you have it! (You could take this operation inside, but it can get a little messy.)

Rinse mulberries with a water hose and a colander.

Bonus Tips:

1. *Redneck Friend recommends a method called "thumpin'." He says this is where you use the fatty meat of your hip to thump the trunk of the mulberry tree. This is supposed to make the berries all fall at once, but I have not confirmed this.
    
2. **Wear an old shirt. If some mulberries fall on you and splat, you'll look like you lost a paintball game.
    
3. Want to remove the stems? Fuhgeddaboudit! They just disappear into the middle and become one with the mulberry, so learn to love them.
    
4. Eat mulberries plain with whipped cream, sugared over pancakes, or in a fruit salad. But just wait til I show you my favorite way to eat mulberries...