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Originally in May 2007 Newsletter, Article by Vicky Karhu
When Hernando De Soto and his small army of Spaniards marched through the southeastern United States in the early 1540’s, they often encountered large groves of Mulberry trees, particularly in the river valleys of what is now East Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Western North Carolina, His chroniclers describe how the Indians spared these and other fruit-bearing trees from being cut for use as firewood and construction material. On their way to the town of Chiaha, near a town called Canasoga, the expedition was greeted by a group of twenty Indians who brought them baskets of mulberries as a gift, “which was perhaps the only food they had in abundance in this spring season.” A large Creek still named Conasauga flows through the Tennessee River Valley near the town of Etowah, Tennessee. It is easy to imagine the landscape in this beautiful valley setting with the mulberry trees dripping with fruit in the spring sun. The naturalist, William Bartram, also mentions mulberries as a favorite fruit of the Mvskoke people he visited in the late 1700’s.
The “red” or “black” mulberry trees are a hardy native of the Southeastern United States that thrive in moist, fertile soils, but can also grow in poor soils, as long there is moisture. The long, blackberry-like fruits appear from late spring to early summer and are exceptionally sweet, making them a favorite for baking and eating raw. Birds and squirrels love these berries, too, and can clean a tree off before humans get a chance to harvest the fruit. Mulberries are harvested by placing a blanket on the ground beneath the tree and shaking the branches; they are highly perishable making them inappropriate for shipping and retail sales; consequently, mulberries are largely ignored as a commercial agricultural crop. Dried leaves of the White Mulberry tree, native to Asia, are known for their medicinal value in China and Japan and are used to help regulate blood sugar and for their beneficial effect on red blood cell lipids.
Studies in Japan and India have linked mulberry leaf extract to increased HDL (good) cholesterol, decreased LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides. Besides being a delicious and, possibly medicinal, food; the mulberry tree was valuable to the indigenous peoples of the eastern United States as a source of fiber for textile production.
The following description comes from La Page Du Pratz, History of Louisianna, 1774:
Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the mulberry-tree, or of the feathers of swans, turkies, or India ducks. The bark they take from young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have been cut down; after it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all the woody part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the coarseness of pack-thread, and weave them in the following manner: they plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, and having stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious manner into a cloak of about a yard square with a wrought border round the edges. When the girls reach the age of eight or nine years they are clothed from the waist to the ankles with a fringe of threads of mulberry bark, fastened to a band 033 which is attached below the abdomen; there is also another band above the abdomen which meets the first at the back; between the two the body is covered in front by a network which is held there by the bands, and at the back there are merely two large cords, each having a tassel.
The fiber has been used in Asia to produce paper for centuries and is now used for this purpose all over the world. The Asia White Mulberry is the host plant for the famous silkworms. The durable, yet soft mulberry wood is used for fence posts, farm implements, furniture and caskets. Red Mulberry trees grow throughout Oklahoma. Many people know where these trees are and keep an eye on them so that they can harvest the sweet fruits. Many local trees were hit by freezes in April. OSU extension agent, Doug Maxey, reported in the Okmulgee Daily Times that they should recover and bear fruit this year.
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