One day last week I noticed squashed berries on the sidewalk right outside a community garden in my neighborhood. Suspecting it wasn’t the aftermath human-on-produce violence, I looked up, and lo and behold! There was an enormous tree, probably 30 feet tall, it’s long branches filled with plump berries. Apparently no one is tending to the tree, so the ripe fruit had been left to fall to the ground. The berries look something like blackberries, but I do believe blackberries grow on bushes. So–what is this big tree, and are the berries edible?
The next question is, if these are edible, do I surreptitiously pick some from this neglected tree? I don’t want to steal, but I hate to see food wasted. And it IS a community garden, after all, right?
This is an all too familiar conundrum. In my old neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights, there was this pear tree on the other side of a large stone garden wall that I used to walk by fairly often, which in Autumn would become laden with fruit, some of which hung over the wall onto the street side. It bothered me that no one was picking these luscious pears and I constantly threatened to no one in particular to buy an extending light bulb installer/grabber to pick some of these golden beauties. I never did get up the gumption to do it.
In the case of the berries, as with my other fruit-related saber-rattling, the picking will probably never come to pass.
Though I won’t be baking any community-garden pies any time soon, it would be nice to know what this is so at least I can impress people with my horticultural knowledge. If you have opinions or advice on any of the above questions, please say something in the comments below.
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June 25th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Perhaps a mulberry? If so, they are edible.
http://www.fiery-foods.com/Dave/mulberries.asp
July 5th, 2008 at 8:24 am
That would be a mulberry tree. It is not going totally unused, birds and wildlife love them. The fruit is edible and delicious……think of making mulberry wine! A tree near a sidewalk is very messy indeed!
April 12th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
eat them!!!!!!!!
May 29th, 2010 at 5:39 am
Mulberry Tree. Grew up eating this fruit. Caution, stains your clothes. They come in diff colors. Sweet yummy
June 1st, 2010 at 8:30 am
It is a mulberry tree. I just removed the one that grew at the side of my house that shaded my south patio and yes it is VERY MESSY. The birds would devoure the fruit and in the 8 years I lived there I had never seen any fruit rippen because of the birds.
The stump was a monster to get out as the roots were massive and anchored around bolders.
August 5th, 2010 at 10:00 am
We have this same tree in our back yard. I’m so glad someone said what it is because I’ve been trying to figure it out! They are definitely edible – very sweet, with a mild berry flavor, but a bit seedy.
Alas, our tree is coming down soon. It’s over our driveway and it WRECKS our cars.
October 4th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
That’s a mulberry – no doubt. The fruit is definitely edible, and delicious. The biggest problem is that it stains badly. No problem – collect some of the green (unripened) fruit. Squeeze some juice from the green berries onto the stain, and it will come out – like magic! If you like them but don’t like the stains, plant a white mulberry tree. The fruit starts out green, but develops a definite white shade when ripe – tastes almost identical, but no stains.