This week I bought two punnets of Mulberries.  My littlest one and I were doing a quick fruit and vegetable ‘top up’ shop and we discovered that mulberries were on special.

It’s amazing how many memories came flooding back as I explained to her the fun I used to have collecting mulberries.  She thought they looked like big, purple caterpillars!

Certain foods, like a scent or a faded photo taken by Dad and lovingly pasted into the family photo album by Mum, immediately bring back memories for me.

Stringy mangoes remind me of the Summer afternoons in Central Queensland on the lawn of our closest friends while Bowen Mangoes remind me of my Grandmother arriving from Far North Queensland with a box full picked by my Great Uncles.

Baby watermelons remind me of my Grandfather and his backyard market garden – rows and rows of every vegetable under the sun. By far our favourites were the watermelons no bigger than a soccer ball.  With the cane knife he reserved for cutting down huge stands of bananas, he would let my brother and I pick a watermelon from the vine and he’d then chop each melon in two with one big swish of his knife. You can imagine we’d then sit on the lawn under the banana trees with juice from head to toe!

Mulberries bring back memories of our best friends who lived four hour’s drive due West of us.  Not a wave in sight so holidays with them consisted of hours in the ‘above ground pool’, riding our bikes to the milkbar at the front of the Chemist shop and munching mulberries until we were purple from top to bottom (literally)!

One year both our mums despaired at our permanent state of purple so had a brainwave.  The worst by far were our feet – because we’d all march around the base of the tree looking for silkworms, collecting leaves and figuring out how to climb to get the fat, juicy mulberries from the higher branches.

So being the mother of invention, our mums invented mulberry socks! Each child was given 2 bread packets and 2 rubber bands.  One bread bag onto each foot, up to our knees and then held in place by a rubber band.  Easy, free and very effective.

So ten minutes and memories later, we popped our mulberries into our trolley and headed off.

The mulberries have been a hit this week:

• This morning we had Bircher Muesli, a sprinkle of chopped walnuts, a scoop of vanilla yoghurt and mulberries
• Sunday night we made a Pear, Mulberry, Strawberry and Blueberry Crumble (here’s a recipe for Mulberry Crumble Cake that sounds divine!)
• And tomorrow (with 4 extras for a holiday play date) the kids have already ordered a “Vampire’s Blood Frappe” (mulberries, strawberries, pineapple juice and loads of ice)

Do you have a history with mulberries?  Does food bring back memories for you?  Or is it just me that has a bit of an obsession with food?!

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.