Across our street, close to the place Mr B gets his hair cut, there is a tree. That is not particularly unusual as there are trees all along the street, but all the other trees are sour oranges. This tree had soft leaves and lots of stems.
In a complicated discussion about what Greeks call a raspberry, Panagiota decided that it must have been 'mouro', and pointed out that the the tree across the street was one. OK - clearly 'mouro' is not raspberry. I know raspberries, we used to have those at the allotment and I could sneak under them and remain undetected for hours. (F let hers get a tad out of control but they never grew to tree size!)
Some joint woogling in two languages, lots of photos, and we all agreed that mouro and raspberries were compound berries, but not the same thing. I think we still don't have a word for raspberry, but we learned that red currants are kokkina frankostafyla and the best in Greece come from Pelion.
They aren't raspberries either.
Further investigation revealed that mouro is actually mulberry. F had never eaten a mulberry, so one day when we were walking under the tree she looked up and sure enough small white compound berries were hanging on the tree.
So she ate one.
I tried to stop her.
After the blind alleys and dead ends we encountered in that conversation with the neighbour, it could have been anything, really it could.
I waited for choking, turning purple, rapid shallow breathing, face swelling, ....but she appears to have survived the experiment, and while I am pleased about that on the whole, I hold the view that she needs to be discouraged from random sampling of plant material alleged to be food stuffs. There might be a clue for instance in the fact we never saw any Greeks eating them. She should at least wait until Mr B is here so that if she does croak it, there is someone with opposable thumbs to open the cat food tins.
(She said it was very sweet.)
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteOooh, white ones - I've only ever tasted red and black mulberries (a friend had one in their garden in Sydney). They make lovely jam... But you are quite right, Tigger - without proper ID, random sampling could be hazardous. Oh, and ask Panagiota about VATOMOURO... (same but different. You know - like raspberry...but maybe blackberry!) Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
F tells me she did her own research and it matched all the descriptions and says Im a fine one to talk, I eat grass on the beach where any cat could have left a disease on it. We have a selection of grasses on the balcony, but I like to sample out. I guess we're made for each other! Furrings and purrings Mr T
DeleteWe used to have a large mulberry tree in NZ . They were lovely. Vatomouro is one of the words used for raspberry but I always considered the vatomouro to be a blackberry. I should ask my grandaughter . She eats them all for breakfast. They come in mixed bags in the freezer department of the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have breakfast under our mulberry tree till the mulberries were too many and too ripe. Then the tree was full of bees and wasps.It was a lovely shady tree.
never heard of these of course, and most asuredly I would NEVER eat anything off a tree unless i reconized it. so happy it turned out well. they do look like mulberries, and i have never eaten those either. i love all the berries i have tasted though. you are right to think about who would open your food. since the covid terror is ramping up rapdigly in our city, i had 2 friends come over yester day and sign our health surrgaes which gives hubby and i the right to handle health issues, and 2 living wills. the most imporant was for them to let Beau in and out and they have a dog at home to. we both put each others name on a card that says Call them if needed. Mama was worried about who would feed and let beau out if we both got the covid. now we are ready we hope.
ReplyDeleteI found the English Telegram and the stock photos on PicMonkey. They have hundreds of thousands of photos to choose from and I just typed in Telegram and that's the one that came up
DeleteI have a mulberry tree and I’ve had the fruit to the same stage as the ones in the pic but then they don’t go any further. Last year I bought a mini mulberry so hopefully they will cross pollinate and I’ll get some fruit
ReplyDeleteOurs were ripe when white - and very sweet.
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