What a dirty trick. Or was it?
In doing further research on mulberries I found an interesting note. (see yahoo link below) It claimed that what my dad did with the cup of cold water was something done to keep kids from eating the fruit to be used for the household. Well, that wasn't this case. I don't remember my mother making mulberry jam or cobblers. But my dad could do some pretty interesting things in the name of humor or teaching lessons. (Like the time he "let" me try to ride our nanny goat.)
The note further claimed that those weren't really worms. They were left-over parts of the flower. There is a good picture of the female flower on the wikipedia site.
According to what I could find, worms that hang out specifically on mulberry trees are silkworms and that is only on the white mulberry tree. They eat the leaves.
There are other larvae that use the mulberry tree as a food source but not maybe not as we were led to believe.
The "worms" I remember were not brown and there was wriggling. So I still am not so certain.
What do you think-worms or not?
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry or http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090613223538AAIjTcN
when you have two theroies the smiplest one is usually correct. If it looked like stinking worms then it must be.
ReplyDeleteI thank you for your opinion Anonymous
ReplyDeleteMy vote: Worms! I know you well enough to trust your judgment. I couldn't find any berries left to test. We have had a major storm last night. Guess they all blew away. I do want to remember to check them for the wigglies next year.
ReplyDeleteWorms! There is a bowl full on my counter now, my kids were eating them all morning...poor kids, yuck! Now, try to wash them out or toss the whole bowl?
ReplyDeleteI have picked thousands upon thousands of mulberries off trees in my yard. I have never ever managed to find as much as one worm of any size inside or outside a mulberry. Also I have to say that as a Floridian, it is actually unusual not to see anything life in a tree, but there are not even spiders ..once in a while I do see a ladybug. I always soak the mulberries in lots of water just in case a new bug/worm should appear (and to clean them) but have never seen anything but mulberry seeds and bits of leaf in the water. I say fooey to the worm theory. I have been eating mulberries all my life and I am 67.
ReplyDeleteWhether mulberries have worms or not may depend on what part of the country they are grown. I'm from the midwest, and mulberries here definitely do have worms! I used to eat lots of mulberries as a kid (nobody ever warned me about the worms) . Then one day I took a good close look at the berries I was eating and was horrified to see tiny little worms! All the mulberries I've looked at closely have them, but they're so tiny they can be easy to miss. If your eyesight isn't superb, you may need a magnifying glass. The worms are super small and are a yellowish-brown color. I actually still do like to eat mulberries, but now I soak them overnight in salt water to remove all the little wormies!
ReplyDeleteI live in western Oklahoma. My grandma pointed out the tiny worms on mulberries to me about 45 years ago to me after I had been eating them. She said all mulberries have them. I have checked every mulberry tree I see and have always found worms. I have asked people that have ate them, some say they knew and ate them anyway, and some say they have never seen any worms. I have never heard of anyone getting sick eating them. I have rasberrries and blackberries next to a mulberry tree and neither on of them have the worms. What are the worms and is it possible to get sick eating them. I will show them to you if you come to Oklahoma. I have looked all over the web and I see people saying there are not worms. The worms are very small and light colored. I can only see them on ripe fruit.
ReplyDeleteAll around Oklahoma the mullberries have worms. I've searched for ones without worms my entire life, to no avail. You are right, they are only on the ripe ones. You can rinse them with child or hot water, you can soak then overnight, but as soon as you finish with all of that, and you think there can't possibly be any alive, they come right back out. So if you're going to eat yummy ripe mullberries anywhere in Oklahoma, you're going to eat worms...but they taste good:)
DeleteI just found out about this while I was eating some and noticed that there was something moving on them, but my question is do they have any effect on you???
ReplyDeleteThey have no effect on you. I must have eaten a million as a child with no ill effects, other than psychological.
DeleteThere are worms but they are tiny and very fast. They don't wiggle, they just move in and out like they're on a rollercoaster.
ReplyDeleteI found worms -- Kansas -- ugh!!!
ReplyDeleteI found worms -- Kansas -- ugh!!!
ReplyDeleteI found worms -- Kansas -- ugh!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm in KY. Someone in another website identified them as thrips larvae. I see them on my ripe black mulberries; can't see them on my white ones, but the color's too similar to tell. I rinse the fruit by agitating it gently in a bowl of water & strain it in a sieve, & repeat several times. I then pour the fruit to dry on a towel briefly & then put into a container to freeze until I'm ready to use them.
ReplyDeleteTh mulberries in Texas seem to always have lots of worms. As good as the sweet taste; I can't bring myself to eat them again.
ReplyDeleteI'm on Hitchcock Texas and have a huge mulberry tree... All the ripe mulberries have tiny white wormy things and also some slightly larger brown ones (probably the mature version.)
ReplyDeleteI'm using water to clean them, but it's laborious with so many tiny ones to possibly ever get them all.
I'm from Kansas. My kid pointed out the worms after everyone(5 of us) had already been eating them. I have been eating mulberries for 30 years+. Never noticed before. I suppose I'll try not to look too hard next time I'm eating them. Yumyum
ReplyDeleteI have read that they're often fruit fly larva. You can find the same worms in blackberries. I have eaten the berries fresh off the tree, but if I look at what I picked and see the movement it's hard to continue eating them. I soak them in cold water to make the worms swim out or hide long enough for me to eat them without seeing anything. Mulberries have a surprising amount of protein compared to most fruit. Why? Maybe because they contain worms whether you see them or not. If you like the taste but can't handle the thought of eating live worms, cook with the berries instead. If you have ever eaten canned vegetables, you have eaten cooked maggots. These worms are much smaller. And all studies show no side effects of humans eating fruit fly larvae - whether they're cooked or raw. Just another source of protein. As long as you don't have to see them wriggling. :p
ReplyDelete