Edible garden: Mulberries

The mulberry is suited to sauces, jams and wines and is delicious eaten fresh. Photo / Supplied

How to grow them:

The mulberry is not a berry but a cluster of tiny separate fruits and is known as a "multiple fruit".

Mulberry trees are hardy and low maintenance.

The fruit is rarely found in supermarkets as it has a short shelf life, so is suited to home gardens.

The white mulberry was mainly grown in East Asia for its leaves, to feed silk worms.

The red mulberry is native to the east coast of the US.

The black mulberry fruit has a flavour superior to other mulberry species.

It is a large tree needing cool temperatures to set fruit and is thought to originate from Iran.

England's King James I had 100,000 black mulberry trees (the wrong species) planted to feed silk worms; Buckingham Palace was built on the site of this former orchard.

In the kitchen:

The mulberry is well suited to sauces, jams and wines and is delicious eaten fresh.

The black mulberry is described as tasting just as good as the blackberry it resembles.