Make the most of mulberries

Join Kathy Bishop and Tom Crowford on their West Country smallholding

We love mulberries. Whiskered and juicy-to-bursting, the berries taste of a moreish mix of blackcurrant wine gums and tangy grapes. There are two mulberry trees on our smallholding: a prolific red variety, and a young black mulberry that is just starting to produce its first berries*. Throughout the summer we pick handfuls of mulberries as they ripen, eating most straight from the tree, but we also infuse some in vinegar, bottling their wonderful flavour until the next season comes round.

MULBERRY, GOATS’ CHEESE, ROCKET LEAF AND FENNEL TOASTS

INGREDIENTS

Makes 12–16 nibbles

Mulberry vinegar (recipe below)

4 slices of sourdough bread

125g soft, mild goats’ cheese

A handful of rocket leaves

A few fennel fronds (we use the bronze variety)

METHOD

1. To make mulberry vinegar: put 500g mulberries and 300ml cider vinegar in a bowl. Cover and leave for five days (stirring once a day). Pour the mixture through a jelly bag, measure the resulting liquid, and add 50g of granulated sugar for every 100ml of fruit vinegar. Pour the juice and sugar into a saucepan and bring gently to the boil. Boil for 10 minutes, remove from the heat, and cool before pouring into sterilised bottles. It should make around 750ml and will keep for about a year. 2. To make the toasts, lightly toast the bread on each side and let cool. Crush a few thin slices of the goats’ cheese on to each piece. Arrange the rocket leaves and fennel fronds on top. Liberally drizzle the mulberry vinegar over the leaves and finish with a couple of cracks of freshly ground black pepper. Cut the toast into bite-sized pieces before serving, ideally with a glass of white wine on the side.

* Mulberry trees can take up to nine years to start fruiting and berries are rarely available to buy as they spoil quickly after picking. If you don’t grow your own, look for a public tree in your area to forage from (try this map: mulberrytrees.co.uk/locations). Or use raspberries, blackcurrants or redcurrants instead.

Discover more recipe ideas from Kathy and Tom on Instagram instagram.com/the_seasonal_table and their website theseasonaltable.co.uk