This berrylicious issue of #LEARNABOUT features another berry that ripens throughout summer. Mulberries grow around most US cities, and just like serviceberries that we talked about in Vol. 3, you might find them growing near your house, sidewalks, greenways, and public parks. We will soon talk about how to find them, but spoiler alert: they aren't hard to find at all!

What are mulberries?

What makes mulberries special?

Where can I find them? 

How to eat mulberries 

• Eat them raw!
• Bake them into a pie. 
• Make jam out of them. 
• Add them to yogurt. 
• Try making mulberry sangria! 
• You might find dried mulberries from stores, but they come at at exorbitant prices, usually imported from Europe.
• You might also find dried mulberry leaf tea in stores for controlling blood sugar

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This issue of #LEARNABOUT features a unique berry that ripens around this time of the year (late spring to early summer). It grows around most cities, but few even know about its existence, let alone know that it's actually edible and delicious.

What are serviceberries?

The name of this mysterious berry is called serviceberry, but it takes on many other common names, including juneberry, saskatoon berry, and amelanchier.
So let's clarify them first:
The field of fruit classification (if such a field even exists) can't seem to agree on what to call it, partially because different regions have different preferences to its name. Canadians tend to call it serviceberry, the U.S. regions of the Midwest (such as us Minnesotans) and the Northeast tend to call it juneberry, and saskatoon berry is the weird name that the fruit market chose to brand it when it eventually made its way to the grocery store.
However, I am going to tell you, with the best of my knowledge, how these names actually came about.
First of all, there are many many species of serviceberries, all under the genus Amelanchier, under the family Roseaceae. Among these berries, some grow on trees, some grow on shrubs, some ripen in late May, some ripen in June, and some ripen throughout July and August. Juneberry, as what the name indicates, refers to the specific Amalanchier species that ripens in June, and more often than not, the berries grow on trees. Serviceberry is just a categorical common name given to the rest of the fruits in this genus, and more often than not, they grow on shrubs. Now, lastly, the weird one: saskatoon berry. Saskatoon berry originally only referred to one species of Amalanchier: Amelanchier alnifolia, which grows mostly in the northern U.S. and most of Canada. However, when the U.S. fruit and vegetable administration (again I don't know if such an agency actually exists) decided to make money off of this fruit, they needed to come up with a more exotic name than serviceberry/juneberry (however, I do think juneberry sounds wayyyy more romantic, just like April showers and May flowers), hence they went with saskatoon (sounds sassy).
All clear? Great! Moving on. First let me show you what they look like:

What makes serviceberries special?

Where can I find them? 

What can I do with serviceberries? 

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