When I was growing up, my father taught me that the first thing one should do when moving onto a new piece of land is to plant mulberry trees. The fast growing trees provide abundant shade and as a bonus they produce rich dark berries that are loved by humans and wildlife alike. Thus, with mulberries originally planted on our land to provide the shade my father loved and to attract hungry berry-eating birds, we recently decided to look over the history of mulberries and recipes that included them. In doing so we found out that because the two-inch berries are so juicy, they rarely make it to market shelves. But fresh picked, they are great for making into pies and jams.
Keeping that in mind, the McFadden Ranch developed a recipe for Mountain Mulberry Jam. This jam tastes more like a mulberry pie filling, full of flavor from the dark rich fruit with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg to give it that homemade country taste.
