Mulberries
Mulberries
The yellow gravel path begins to slope more sharply as I walk further away from the castle. Ahead of me are the nine mellowed brick arches cut into the ancient walls of the Monks Garden. They lean down the gentle incline and frame the views into this peaceful ancient space.
This particular garden is old and records exist for it certainly from 1,200AD although it is likely it was built a little earlier. The walls enclosed the garden and protected fruit trees and probably a physic garden from errant wildlife. We have a list from 1216 of 61 apple and pear trees planted there - probably more diversity in varieties than we see today in the fruit trees in our gardens or the fruit we can buy in sundry supermarkets.
Two hundred years ago, this practical “working” garden was then transformed by the 2nd Earl of Carnarvon into an Italianate style ornamental garden after a new much larger kitchen garden was built elsewhere.
Today the Monk’s Garden pays homage to both styles. The symmetrical arches in both the brick wall and the yew hedges point to a garden of leisure but the fruit trees (medlars, crab apples and figs) around the walls recall the earlier purpose.
Central in two of the lawned quadrants are two of my favourite trees: mulberry trees. These are large and gnarled but there is a more compact species too so it is in fact a good genus for most gardens. These are the variety morus nigra which produce fruit. Shaped like a long raspberry, the fruits starts as a pale watery colour with red tints before darkening to a deep black red.
Over August I begin to check them regularly, trying them just to see if they are nearly there. They need to be ripe, black and perfectly squidgy with an edge of tartness:utterly delicious. If you look them up, they are also very healthy with vitamins K,C A and E and are an excellent source of iron as well potassium and magnesium. Raw mulberries are 88% water so they can splodge over the ground and your clothes with tremendous ease but as well as being eaten straight from the tree, they can be used in pies, tarts, cordials, and herbal teas. They also make lovely jam.
Mulberries have been prized since Roman times and were part of medieval herbal remedies so it is possible that there there were mulberry trees planted in here from the beginning.
This mulberry fruit tree is very different from the white mulberry-(Morus alba) which has been cultivated over millennia for silkworm production. Originally from China, this was even more highly prized and the silk trade contributed to the wealth and beauty of several empires. The Roman poet Virgil called it “L'arbre D'or,” or tree of gold, because of its usefulness for food, medicine and presumably silk making. The silk worms feed on Morus alba leaves and the silk threads are harvested from the cocoons spun by their larvae.
Four hundred years ago the French king required great groves of the trees to be planted. To provide for the french court. It was also tried in England but less successfully as the trees were decimated by frost. Even today Britain is usually too cold for mulberry trees to survive. Instead, Britain focused on sheep and wool - there are still plenty of sheep at Highclere as there have been for millennia.
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56 Comments
"Here we go 'round the Mulberry Tree, early in the mornin'!" We sang this as children! Hugs and peace to you dear Lady Carnarvon!
Sandra in Florida
Lady Carnarvon.........the pictures of your gardens are so beautiful. You might ask your chef to fashion a mulberry pie with equal amounts of tart red cherries. It makes a marvelous combination.
I visited Highclere Castle this past August 1. It was a dream realized! What a beautiful place.
Raspberries, mulberries .... all so delicious. I grew up as a country child in the Hertfordshire
countryside while my Dad was conscripted into the army of World War 11. We seemed to live
on what our garden would produce.... berries, berries and more - we were so healthy added to
the generous rations provided by the government. My mother taught at a local school and took
loads of extra produce to her children. Regrettably my small Hungerford garden has little room
but there is a tree full of figs which never seem to ripen. Diana.
I was caught “caught red handed” whilst reading this instead of mowing the lawn! Wasn’t it James I who planted the wrong type of mulberry in effort to get silk production going in England
Very interesting reading. As I live in Northern Wisconsin in the states, fruit trees are scarce. 9 months of the year the weather is in the minus digits and lots of snow. Our growing season is a mere 3 months, if that. I've never eaten anything with Mulberry, so I guess it would be a learning experience.
The section about the silk worms was fascinating.
Lovely the pictures of mulberries and did you and lord Carnarvon have nice bank holiday weekend and like to visit highcelere castle and fan of Downton Abbey
Lovely information. Your comments are always so lyrical and yet informative. Thank you!
Thank you, we've have visitors to the castle all weekend as we are open.
Thank you Ann-Marie
Thank you Linda, I'm delighted you had a wonderful time.
Beautiful pictures especially of the ripened fruit. I’ve never tasted mulberry jam before and I’m sure it’s amazing! I have my coffee and anticipate your email each Monday! Thank you for sharing your home and its lovely grounds with the world.
Denise
Columbus, OH
Thank you Denise.
Another lovely and educational Monday Blog Lady Carnarvon. Thank you again for the lovely photos of sections of your Estate as glad to see they are still in great shape as they were when I visited & toured there in 2014 & 2015. So correct about mulberries as they do make tasty jam and pies and are pretty healthy to eat too! Thank you again for a lovely way to begin my Monday and week ahead.
Remain well and enjoy your weekly & weekend guests!
Lady Carnarvon,
I saw the title and said to myself, “Aha! Now I’ll learn about mulberry trees!” The most prestigious ‘street” in our small Virginia town where I grew up was Mulberry Road. Either everyone knew why it was named ‘mulberry’ or I never had the gumption to ask! And now, 70 years later, I still don’t know if there were mulberry trees on Mulberry Road! I hope so.
Thank you for a very interesting story this morning!
Martha G
What a lovely post, beautifully photographed and so interesting and informative. I've never actually seen a mulberry before, and you have photographed it so well. The Monks Garden with its graceful arches is absolutely beautiful. I would love to walk into these photographs and witness all of this beauty first hand.
I agree with all the previous comments. Your stories are always captivating and informative. I love Mulberry (the nigra one) In Italy we have it, especially in the north I think during summertime. The jam is delicious.
I think it's a privilege to walk in gardens that offer you history and nature at the same time. Thank you for sharing with us such a marvel.
Take care
Vanessa
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Thanks for the fascinating article and the hard work in maintaining your home as a national treasure. My wife and I have thoroughly enjoyed our visits. While as the setting for Downtown Abbey it has worldwide recognition it is also dear to our hearts as Totleigh Towers in the TV series of Jeeves and Wooster.
Lady Carnarvon,
I envy you the amazing historical documents that you have access to at Highclere!
The stories that you share are just the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure.
May you continue to preserve that lovely home!
Thank you Bonnie, you will have to visit Highclere one day.
Thank you Stephen. Yes Jeeves and Wooster was excellent too.
Lady Carnarvon,
Our property use to be a citrus farm; I wonder if we could possibly grow mulberry trees . I love the idea and it such a beautiful tree. I’m definitely going to look into to doing so. Thank you for planting that seed - no pun intended.
Best Regards,
Jossie
Dear Lady Carnarvon
The Monk's Garden is beautiful and obviously has an amazing history. I have not had mullberries before. They look tasty. Hopefully one day I can walk around the awesome gardens and sights of Highclere.
Take care
Susan
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Another “album” of excellently composed images! My brain just fizzed and popped with joy at the arched curve framing the two shadow arches on the ground, then pulling farther inward to the arched topiaries in the distance. Just exquisite! I am forwarding this to others who will appreciate the visual artistry.
If you have time: Some of the “fruit trees (medlars, crab apples and figs) around the walls” appear to be espaliered in another image? If so, in a design?
Thank you for the joy you bring to a rainy Monday morning here in Northern Virginia.
I remember walking in the monk's garden when we visited Highclere back in April. It is a lovely peaceful place. I like to think of the little silkworms eating away at all those nice juicy leaves, but perhaps not your variety. Anyway I am a fan of silk.
A lovely interesting story.
My best wishes
Sandria Maddocks
Thank you Susan, I hope we might welcome you one day.
Hearing about mulberries always sends me back to childhood in California where we had a rather wild orchard but there was one mulberry tree growing in the corner. We (my sister and brother and I) would ride horses up to the tree and feast. We then would have to scrub hands as the juice is quite permanent. I still remember the amazing taste though it has been many decades since.
Love the Monks Garden!
A local school has a mulberry tree which is in full fruit during the summer holidays, so my husband used to bring home bucketsful of the fruits ! They make a superb home-made wine .... full bodied, and a wonderful deep, rich red ! Even Carson would have approved of it !
What fun!
What a great way to pick them!
The ones beloved of silk works are different.. they used not to grow so well here and prefer the French climate
That's correct some of the medlars and others are espaliered but in no particular design, we like to leave them to find their own path. Thank you for your kind words.
I can share them a little later this year in terms of photos?
Such a magical area! I'm picturing centuries gone by...Thank you for maintaining such treasures. Here in Idaho we have elder berries and chick cherries for such yummy desserts along with cordials.....
Definitely! Great suggestion from a former Virginian. More pictures of the espaliered fruit trees, please.
I so loved learning about Mulberry trees today! Thank you for enlightening us this morning. Your Monday posts always inspire me to look for these certain things while at Highclere. So looking forward to our visit! It won't be long now!!
See you soon!
Patsy
Thank you Patsy for your kindest words as ever. We simply can't wait to see you.
Lovely the pictures of mulberries and lovely Downton Abbey and lovely to visit highcelere castle and lovely history and state homes
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Another very interesting Monday topic. I read it aloud to my husband who grew up and lived in Hawaii for over 40 years. He recalls the tapa "cloth" made by Polynesians from the inner bark of mulberry tree and other trees. Have you heard of the tapa? However, I learned it's a different variety of mulberry tree called Broussonella papyrifera. Thanks again for sparking our interest in mulberry trees.
Ina Sue & Alan
This was the first year my grandson ever discovered mulberries when we went to Pennsylvania in the United States. I grew up with them but now living in the South are not very popular trees. My son and grandson didn't even know what they were and they fell in love with them thought they were the most fun things I remember growing up and having purple stained feet most of the summer.
I love mulberries. We had two at our previous home. One of the delightful things about this wonderful tree is that it comes with its own stain remover! Rub an unripe mulberry over the stain and it will come off. Rub them in your berry-stained hands and they will clean up like magic.
Our mulberry tree is 100 years old! We live in northeast Ohio here in America & we have had a most unusual summer...not too hot & plenty of rain. We had a bumper crop of mulberries to say the least. The berries were the size of your thumb!! We have frozen some for tarts or fruit crumbles this winter.
Thank you so much, Lady Carnarvon for letting us visit your beautiful Highclere Castle and grounds. We were there this past Sunday after our previous trip was cancelled three years ago! The tour was awesome and we gained so much knowledge about the history! Please enjoy your time returning to your lovely “home”! We are from Michigan. Take care, the Quints
Dear Lady Carnavon
Thank you for sharing another beautiful piece of Highclere history.
The nursery rhyme,Here we go round the mulberry bush, I sang as a child came to mind! Of course I then looked up the origin and meaning behind the nursery rhyme, so interesting!
Carol Schaub
North Carolina
Lady Carnarvon,
Such a lovely and magical place!
The way you describe the gardens and the pictures bring me right back to July 9th when we had the privilege of walking through them.
I especially loved all the wildflowers around the place.
Thank you for letting us enjoy your house and gardens!
Thank you so much
very interesting!
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
In reading some of the comments, I see that there are many people who enjoy visiting Highclere Castle. It has been 4 years since my wife and I had the opportunity to visit this magnificent castle, but it almost didn't happen. You see, we live in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania and so we had to fly to London.
We purchased tickets online to visit the Castle with a set date, but when we arrived at the airport, the airline informed us that the flight was cancelled. The "best" that they could do was get us on a flight the next day, but we would have missed our reservation to visit the Castle. I am generally a very easy-going person, but I wasn't going to take "No" as an answer especially since my wife was so disappointed. I got on my iPhone and found that the airline had two seats available on another flight. I grabbed a supervisor (not literally;), showed him what I found, explained the importance of Highclere Castle, and demanded he provide the necessary customer service!
We made the flight to London, took the Tube to the train station, and rode the train to Newbury where we met a taxi driver named David who whisked us away to the Castle. From the moment we first set eyes on Highclere, it became a day we will never forget. We now look forward to our next visit, but we will have a backup plan for traveling:)
I agree that your article is very interesting. I was fascinated by the history of the gardens. Your information on the mulberries makes me want to try them, and try to grow the trees, if possible. I live in the southern part of the U.S., and haven't been able to grow raspberries (my favorite berry), but we have a few blueberry shrubs, and I love picking the berries and eating them raw or putting them into various baked goods.
Hello Richard
Am so pleased you had such a wonderful day here.
Dear Lady Carnarvon:
Thank you for this Monday's blog. As always you provide such an interesting and informative story, along with many wonderful photographs of the Castle's grounds.
I do not recall ever eating anything produced from the mulberry fruit but will definitely look for such items next when I am grocery shopping.
I do remember the children's poem "all around the mulberry bush...", though.
Until next time, I wish you good fruit picking.
Perpetua Crawford
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Thank you for sharing this with us. I'd heard about mulberries, but I've never eaten one. When I look at the picture that you've provided here for us, it looks very similar to our blackberries where I live (i.e., in the southern part of the United States). My Granny used to make blackberry cobblers, which were so delicious. However, I'm reading that the two berries, even though they look alike, they actually come from two separate plants. I'm going to find mulberries here, and I want to see if I can make a cobbler with them.
Sincerely,
Karen Chapman
I am more than 60 years old and can also remember “here we go ‘round the mulberry bush early in the morning”…. nursery rhyme, learned in my preschool in Jamaica, West Indies . I’ve visited Highclere in 2021 and do need to come back to see the gardens that I missed last time. I did see the Egyptian artifacts and the manor, had brunch and shopped. Next time I’ll focus on the gardens.
Beautiful Grounds and Gardens Lady Carnavon. Thanks for sharing .
Thank you Joel.
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article, as I always do. They are always so informative especially the snippets of history that you frequently introduce into them. Thank you for taking the time to research and write them. At some point, probably next year now, although I suppose there is always Christmas, I hope to come back to visit Downton again with my patient, dearly beloved...
Very Best Wishes,
Susan Hancock