In Season: Mulberries

8 a.m.- noon Saturday: Lawrenceville Farmers Market, Lawrenceville. www.lawrencevillefarmersmarket.com

8 a.m.-noon Saturday: Snellville Farmers Market, Snellville. http://www.snellvillefarmersmarket.com/

Cooking demos:

6 p.m. Friday: Chef Stacy Maple of Local Bounty Chef will demonstrate Farro Risotto and Shaved Fennel and Arugula Salad. Lilburn Farmers Market, Lilburn. http://www.lilburnfarmersmarket.org/

9 a.m. Saturday: Chef Joe Truex of Watershed working with blackberries. Morningside Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.morningsidemarket.com

10 a.m. Saturday: Chef Tyler Williams of Woodfire Grill. Peachtree Road Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com

Chef demos are held at many farmers markets. Check your local market’s Facebook page or website for listings.

FOR SALE

Vegetables, fruit and nuts: arugula, Asian greens, asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, chard, collards, cucumbers, fennel, garlic scapes, green garlic, herbs, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, mustard greens, onions, pea tendrils, peaches, peas, pecans, potatoes, radicchio, radishes, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, strawberries, sugar snaps, summer squash, , turnips

From local reports

Mulberries get no respect. At the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market on a recent Thursday evening, I heard someone at the Crack in the Sidewalk booth saying, “You eat those?” while looking at my quart baskets of mulberries.

Turns out it was a homeowner with a mulberry tree who never ate the fruit and thought only of it as a nuisance, dropping deep purple fruit that stained hands, shoes and pavement. This is the time of year that the 30- to 40-foot tall trees are bearing inch-long fruits that resemble slender blackberries.

Atlanta’s Concrete Jungle, an organization that picks fruits, nuts and vegetables from untended and ignored plantings and donates them to organizations that feed the hungry, lists the mulberry as perhaps the most ubiquitous fruit in Atlanta. It’s also one of the most productive, with each tree bearing hundreds of berries. If humans don’t eat them, the birds and other wildlife will enjoy the bounty.

East Atlanta Village resident Robert Hamilton has a quarter-acre yard full of all manner of fruit trees including the six varieties of mulberries he’s planted.

“We have a native mulberry, Morus rubra. Other varieties were introduced to the South because the colonists wanted to start a silk industry. Chinese silk worms feed on mulberry leaves, so the planters tried many different kinds of mulberries, hoping to find a good match. The silk industry didn’t work out, but the trees grew well,” he said. He added that one reason mulberries continue to be widely grown is that they have few pests or fungus problems.

Hamilton says mulberry trees are infamous for the variability of the flavor of their fruit. One tree might have bland fruit while the fruit from another tree will be sweet or even sour. “So if you don’t like the flavor of the first mulberry you come across, try the fruit from the next tree,” he suggested.

Mulberries come in white and red varieties, with the red variety actually producing dark purple fruit. That purple comes from anthocyanin, a pigment that is widely researched for its benefits to our health.

Hamilton finds that by the time his mulberries are really ripe, the birds have been enjoying the bulk of the fruit. “Mulberries are great as a distraction crop. Birds like easy fruit so they’ll go for mulberries first.”

The mulberries he’s able to collect are either eaten on the spot, or added to his breakfast cereal along with blueberries which begin to come into season at about the same time.

At the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market Chris Clinton and Isia Cooper of Crack in the Sidewalk Farm in Atlanta’s Lakewood neighborhood sell what they grow and forage. They have mulberry trees on their property, at least one of which was bearing ripe fruit in mid-May. The season for the berries can extend all the way into July.

Like Hamilton, Cooper finds that the flavor of mulberries varies widely. She and Clinton pick mulberries from their own trees, but also from wild stands that are tucked away from streets and the pollution of auto exhaust. “Just look up and look around. There are mulberry trees everywhere. And as for their staining, mulberries make a quick way to color your lips and cheeks,” she said with a smile.

If you’re not lucky enough to live near a mulberry tree, farmers like Clinton and Cooper may be bringing them to local farmers markets. Like all berries, they are perishable and easily crushed. Refrigerate them if you won’t be eating them right away, and rinse just before using.

The berries have quarter-inch long green stems that are so tender they don’t need to be removed when the berries are prepared. Eat them fresh or try them in most any blackberry recipe.

Nick Oltarsh’s Seared Hanger Steak with Mulberry-Red Wine Steak Sauce

Hands on: 10 minutes Total time: 30 minutes Serves: 6

This recipe from chef Nick Oltarsh of ONE midtown kitchen features both fresh mulberries and mulberry jam, a Middle Eastern specialty item. If you can’t find mulberry jam and haven’t made your own from your bounty of mulberries, use blackberry jam instead.

Vegetable oil for searing steaks

6 (8-ounce) hanger steaks

Salt and cracked black pepper

2 cups dry red wine

1 cup unsalted beef stock

4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

3 tablespoons mulberry jam

1 1/4 cups fresh mulberries

Fresh thyme, leaves only, to taste

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Film the bottom with oil.

While skillet is heating, season steaks with salt and cracked black pepper.

When skillet is hot, sear steaks 3 to 5 minutes per side or until steak is as done as you prefer. Do not crowd pan. Remove from heat and keep warm. Repeat with remaining steaks. Pour out any oil in skillet and return to heat.

Pour wine into skillet and bring to a boil. Use a wooden spoon to scrape any browned bits off bottom of skillet and boil wine until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add beef stock and boil until mixture is reduced by two-thirds, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat until mixture is simmering. Slowly whisk in cold butter until completely incorporated. Stir in fresh mulberries, jam and thyme and simmer 1 minute. Taste for seasoning adding salt or sugar if desired.

Slice steaks and divide between serving plates. Top with sauce and serve immediately.

Per serving: 616 calories (percent of calories from fat, 60), 46 grams protein, 11 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 37 grams fat (15 grams saturated), 136 milligrams cholesterol, 223 milligrams sodium.