Source:

In an attempt to find out, Moslenta decided to collect the stories of those who, for one reason or another. Today we are publishing a monologue by economist-marketer Elina Seyranyan.

Elina Seyranyan | Source: Courtesy of the heroine / Moslenta

Jazz and pulpulaki

I was born in Yerevan in the early 80s. On my mother’s side, almost all of them are chemist scientists, with princely roots. Dad is also a chemist... Yerevan flourished in Soviet times: the capital, the city of jazz and blues, the city of artists and sculptors, writers and poets, the city of Babajanyan, Tamanyan, Saryan. A city where our generation managed to visit as pioneers and Komsomol members, but in a good understanding of these words: in the understanding of a systematic approach to upbringing and education.

Do you know what it was like here? Six months of summer, sun and golden apricots. At every step there are springs - pullulaks, from which the purest cold mountain water flows... Mild winter with snow, sledding and skiing at the resorts of Tsaghkadzor and obligatory New Year's performances with Santa Claus, in whom we believed for a very, very long time.

My Yerevan childhood was a time of miracles. From morning to evening we spent time in the courtyards, played, drew with chalk on the asphalt, rode bikes, played tennis and badminton, doused ourselves with cold water in 40-degree heat, fell in love and loved. But most of all I remember this: a mulberry tree growing in the yard of my grandmother’s house. It was magical, because half the tree produced white fruits, and the other half black... Later we found out that the tree was grafted, but then it seemed to us that it was a miracle! Just like all of life. Then we had her white half.

Trouble and bread

And then came the black one: 1988, a terrifying earthquake in Leninakan and nearby towns, which took the lives of a huge number of people. The whole world mourned and helped Armenia then. The world's rich Armenian diaspora sent aid to Armenia, doctors and simply volunteers from all countries did everything possible to save lives... Then the 90s began: rallies, discontent among the population. My parents’ youth fell precisely at this turning point - emotional, moral, political. Independence of Armenia. The collapse of the Soviet Union. And the war... Karabakh. Pogroms of Armenians in Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad. Coffins of young boys from our school.

Siege... Yes, for the first time I learned what this word actually means, not from books about Leningrad, but from my own life. From 1990 to 1994, the whole of Armenia seemed to be “turned off”: there was no electricity, gas, food, or heating. In our apartment, where there was a huge library, in an apartment with huge shutters and white ceilings on oak parquet, an iron stove appeared. The ceiling turned black. Kerosene stoves and candles were burning.

We slept in our clothes, ate mossy vermicelli, potatoes and washed it down with thyme tea...

I visited many places later - Moscow, New York, San Diego, Rome, Prague. Ate many dishes of world cuisine. But I will never forget the taste of simple Moscow sliced ​​white bread, which I tried when I arrived in Russia from Armenia in the winter of 1993.

Love and cold

Moscow is my student years, the Faculty of International Economic Relations, friends, first love... Memory is a selective thing, and it quickly erases the negative when there is so much good around. Well, this is youth! We had fun. Moscow is huge, tough, a harsh but fair teacher who taught us not to give up, not to bend, to take advantage of all opportunities, to achieve goals. And we achieved them, proved our right to be in Moscow...

Problems? The local climate sometimes made me sad. I was cold all the time. Perhaps, having lived in Moscow for 23 years, I still haven’t warmed up. But I quickly got used to the rather cold, unemotional attitude of people. And I probably even liked it. Everything was clear and rational, without oriental emotions - in school, at work, and in friendship. It's such brutal honesty and truth. Although... Sometimes I missed the warmth. Yerevan. Armenian. Simple human warmth. And yes, I missed you. Therefore, almost all points of my career were in one way or another connected with my homeland: the YEREVAN magazine, the satellite Armenian TV channel, alcohol distribution companies in which the owners were immigrants from Armenia, restaurant holdings with Armenian directors and Armenian cuisine. Probably, this was my way of compensating for homesickness, although I came to Yerevan almost every summer.

Bagramyan and Aivazovsky

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I am very grateful to Moscow and love it because it has given me so many opportunities for development - and the development of the spirit, first of all. Armenians have always assimilated very smoothly, accepted the rules of the game of the country in which they lived... Of course, there were also negative sides. “Blacks”, “chocks” - we didn’t hear anything addressed to us in the 90s. But we were proud of our origin and never hid our nationality. I gave lectures to all my friends and colleagues about where this fabulous Armenia is located, that we adopted Christianity as the state religion first in the world in 301, told who Aivazovsky, Khachaturian, Babajanyan, Marshal Bagramyan were. And, of course, we have always kept the Armenian spirit in the family: cuisine, language, friends, music. This is what makes the Armenian diaspora all over the world strong!

Proteins and plugs

“I returned with a lot of experience, a tempered iron “Moscow” character and the skills to be fearless” |

Most of the territory of both modern and historical Armenia is occupied by mountains, and in general, despite the southern latitudes, the climate here is quite harsh. However, climatic conditions vary depending on the altitude and presence of vegetation. Therefore, there are sharply continental zones, and arid semi-deserts, and cool mountain forests, and green misty valleys, and thickets of subtropical bushes. In addition, even within one area, it is very often possible to harvest several harvests of different crops, since much depends on the sunlight in certain areas and the wind rose.

However, regardless of the region, the soils of Armenia are very poor and rocky, and for this reason, in order to get a harvest, the peasants make incredible efforts, putting their whole soul into working on the land. This is probably why Armenian fruits, vegetables and herbs acquire such exceptional taste!

Fruit crops from Armenia

Each region of Armenia has its own fruit specialization. Thus, from time immemorial, in the most fertile zone of the Ararat Valley, grapes, peaches, apricots, apples, pears, plums, strawberries, mulberries, cherries, and melons (watermelons and melons) have been grown.

Apricot is an endemic Armenian fruit; it is not for nothing that it is called armenium in Latin. Vineyards, apricot and peach orchards can also be found in the subtropical regions of Tavush and Syunik region (northwest and south, respectively); pomegranate, persimmon, and figs are also cultivated here.

In temperate climate zones (wooded Dilijan and Lori region) and in sharply continental mountainous regions, the main fruits are apples, pears, cherries and plums. There are a lot of berries in the forests of Armenia - blackberries, raspberries, currants, sea buckthorn. In a number of mountainous regions there are valleys with their own unique microclimate - for example, the Areni Valley with its historical vineyards, peach and apricot orchards can be called such an oasis among the mountains.

Grapes are a fruit especially revered by Armenians, since grape wine turns into the blood of Christ during the liturgy.

Grapes can be eaten only starting from the celebration of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is celebrated on a Sunday in mid-August. After the solemn liturgy, the ceremony of blessing the grapes brought by believers to the temple takes place.

The art of viticulture and winemaking on Armenian soil was started by Patriarch Noah. The country has many endemic grape varieties, some of which are used as table grapes. The grape season lasts from August to December, although many varieties (for example, black grapes "Armenia"), suitable for long-term storage, delight fruit lovers until the end of winter.

When and what to try?

Each season in Armenia has its own fruits. The fruit season begins in May, when strawberries, cherries and cherries ripen in the Ararat Valley and the southern lands of the country. And the main fruit season in Armenia is autumn. From September to November, the selection in fruit shops is dizzying: at this time you can choose grapes, peaches, apricots, watermelons, melons, plums, pomegranates, apples, pears, figs, persimmons in almost any store...

In the second half of May, apricots begin to be harvested. Their season is not so long, and its peak occurs at the end of June - beginning of July: at this time, the gardens of Armavir and Ararat regions become the main suppliers of apricots. In August - September they ripen in smaller quantities in cooler areas. However, apricot is the most capricious of Armenian fruits. If there is a strong hail storm in the spring, the apricot harvest may be in jeopardy. But, if the year is successful, in July the cost of apricots in Yerevan ranges from 300 to 500 drams (40-60 rubles) per kilogram. In stores and markets you can buy large, fleshy apricots of the Shalah variety and smaller varieties.

The peach season is the longest: it begins in June, and the latest varieties are harvested in early November. The choice of peaches is very large: these are huge fruits (weighing up to 0.5 kg) with amber pulp, and the most delicate “pchkhovi” with an easily separated pit, as well as smaller variations with reddish, yellow and white pulp.

The watermelon and cantaloupe season typically lasts from June to the end of October. In the summer heat, Armenians love to eat sweet watermelon with salty sheep cheese. Maybe there is not such a selection of melons here as in Central Asia, but they definitely taste no worse than Uzbek ones!

The most delicious pomegranates and persimmons are grown in the city of Meghri, the southernmost point of Armenia. And they are filled with sugar by the beginning of November - December, before which they retain their traditional tartness.

From June to November, plums, apples and pears of various varieties ripen in different regions of Armenia. Apples and pears are the most popular local fruits in winter. The varieties “Demirchyan”, “Golden”, “Crimson” and “Kehura” can be found especially often on sale.

Where can you buy Armenian fruits cheaply?

In Yerevan and others there are many specialized fruit shops where you can buy seasonal fruits, vegetables and herbs. As a rule, prices in such shops are lower than in supermarkets. At the same time, among supermarkets, the most favorable prices are in the Yerevan City and Nor Zovq chains, and the most expensive fruits are in SAS stores.

There are also special fruit fairs in cities, but prices in central markets are often several times higher than in stores. Along the Yerevan-Meghri highway, both in the Ararat Valley and in the Areni region, local residents sell fresh fruit in open tents: primarily melons, watermelons, apricots and peaches.

Armenian fruits are also exported to Russia, but often, in order to ensure transportation, they are picked unripe, so truly ripe fruits can only be tasted in Armenia itself!

It’s hard for me to imagine an Armenian garden without a mulberry tree.
Large, spreading, providing abundant shade. Without a stretched blanket under him, when they launch the smallest one in the house onto a tree, so that he shakes those branches that are accessible to him up there. And we are all below, tightly holding a stretched blanket or sheet, and listening to the sound of falling fruits. And then, having sorted it into buckets and bowls, we eat it, some with our hands, some with spoons... some after washing, some right away... For me, Vika doesn’t eat it washed here, she says it doesn’t taste that way. All the taste is washed away.

We are familiar with the name of this culture - here - թութ. But in Russia it is often called mulberry (lat. Morus). I read in the literature that these are trees that grow quickly in their youth, but then their growth slows down, and they are rarely large. And here in Armenia they are huge.
And on the site I would like the trees to grow healthy and large, generously providing shade.
The mulberry is rightfully called the “queen of berries”, and the mulberry tree has been revered since ancient times as the “tree of life”, which has magical powers against evil)))
This berry has several types - with white (Morus alba), black (Morus nigra) and pink berries.
White mulberry is native to China. This tree is up to 20 m tall. The leaves on the same tree differ from each other: on young shoots they are entire, on long-term shoots they are lobed or notched.
Mulberry is basically a dioecious, wind-pollinated plant with male (sterile trees - shovkun) and female flowers on different trees. However, monoecious specimens are often found, in which male and female flowers are located on the same plant.

Black mulberry comes from Iran and Afghanistan, trees up to 15 m high, winter- and drought-resistant. Black mulberry is black-violet in color, tastes sour-sweet and very juicy. You need to be careful with the juice, as it can stain everything around you, including your hands and clothes.
In my opinion, this is a very ornamental plant. And useful. And delicious. At the same time, it withstands drought and frost well. I don’t know why very little of it is grown in Russia. It is also good for urban landscaping, as it is resistant to air pollution by smoke, gases, dust, and easily tolerates pruning. Or, for example, to isolate your area from the street with cars.
Mulberry is good for fixing ravines and sands.
And I don’t understand at all how it can not be grown in our gorge, in Armenia. I am urgently correcting this with our mulberry plantings.
I love it white, and black, and pink... And fresh. And dried. They are stored for a long time and can easily replace sugar.
And I make jam from it, especially from black berries. And doshab, a well-known remedy in Armenia from boiled berry syrup, for coughs, for restoring strength and much more... Mulberry fruits reduce blood pressure and normalize metabolism. Infusion and juice from them are used to rinse the mouth during inflammatory processes in the oral cavity.
Another famous mulberry vodka is made in Armenia.

You can try to propagate mulberries by seeds. It grew very well for me in Russia, from fairly old seeds. And it quickly began to bear fruit.
We planted 4 mulberry trees. White and black. in different places of the site. But closer to the future poultry house and vegetable garden. In the summer we will plant seedlings with pink berries.
This is one from the black mulberry.

And this is one of the white ones.

And this is an option for forming a weeping form of mulberry. Filmed in May, in the Ijevan dendropark.

I read that in Armenia, the Union of Mulberry Guardians was even officially created to promote the cultivation and distribution of these trees. I don’t know how to find and join this union, but consider that I am one of its members, since I highly recommend planting and growing this beautiful tree.
Maybe later I’ll separately find videos of how they assemble it here. Now the Internet is very slow, but I want to send a diary entry. Since tomorrow we have plantings....a lot...and the day after tomorrow...and all of April...
This is a wonderful berry! If you have your own plot, be sure to find a place for it.

To begin with, I will give an excerpt from the book by S. Ilyina (a doctor with 30 years of scientific and practical experience) “Life in Love.” I love this book very much - the author writes about each plant with such love that it is a pleasure to read.

“In the East, this tree is considered sacred; a table is placed under its crown in the yard, at which all family members spend time, and a bed is made under it. Everything in this tree is useful: roots, roots, twigs, leaves and, of course, fruits. Leaves relieve fever and pacify pain; purulent wounds are treated with twigs; the root bark heals the heart - even with “love” wounds it helps, and also lungs, bronchi and bronchial asthma. Bark of twigs and branches medium size treats all kidney diseases.

Red mulberry is good for the blood, white mulberry is good for the nervous system. If the mulberries are dried, then compotes in the spring are not only a pleasure from taste and color, but also the treatment and prevention of vitamin deficiency...

... If you get enough of it during the season and prepare it for the winter, then many illnesses will pass you by, there will be no exacerbations, and the “fashionable” viral flu will bypass your family. It is impossible to find a better stimulant for the body.

photo by V. Inogorodsky

If a boy suffered from paratitis (“mumps”) or scarlet fever in his childhood, then mulberry should definitely become his favorite berry. These childhood infectious diseases, even with the most careful treatment, leave their mark on their genital area. For girls, childhood infections pass without leaving a trace. And future men, husbands, need outside help. It is best and most effective from mulberry.
In addition to compotes, you can prepare fillings for pies and pancakes from soaked berries, and add them to casseroles with cottage cheese and noodles.
The recipe for preparing mulberries with honey for treatment has been passed down for centuries. men's "suffering". Boil a kilogram of fresh or half a kilogram of dry berries (any color) in half a liter of water for 30 minutes. Pour the infusion into another container, add new water and boil for another 30 minutes. Drain the water, place the mixture in the water from the first cooking, rub until it becomes viscous, add 300 g of honey. Boil. Cool. Place in a glass bowl. Take a teaspoon 2 times a day an hour after meals. Over the age of 45, it is useful for both men and women. Menopause will pass smoothly, without anxiety or worry.
Mulberries contain sugar, a significant amount of potassium, iron, and vitamins. Mulberry fruits have choleretic, diuretic, anti-inflammatory action and are recommended for biliary dyskinesia, constipation, cardiac and renal edema origin, inflammatory processes. The fruits are used fresh, dried, or canned.

Now let’s see what other doctors write about this wonderful tree and its fruits.

“The berries are pleasant to the taste, contain sugar up to 10% (white - up to 20%), mainly fructose and glucose, organic acids (malic, citric), pectin, vitamins, copper and iron salts. Mulberry leaves contain a large set of vitamins: thiamine, riboflavin, pyridoxine, nicotinic acid, and beta-sitosterol.

Mulberry berries are widely used in oriental medicine.

photo by V. Inogorodsky

In Vietnam, the drug fomidol is prepared from the leaves of Sh., which increases the body's defenses in the treatment of skin diseases and rheumatism. In terms of biological action, it corresponds to the preparations aloe and biosed (adjuvant, stimulating metabolic processes and tissue regeneration (restoration) in ophthalmology (in eye practice), therapy, surgery and dentistry).

In Japan, Sh flowers, ground with vegetable oils, are included in cosmetic creams.
Currently, Sh. is used in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases: gastritis, enterocolitis.

Ripe berries when fresh have a laxative effect; the pectins contained in the berries protect the digestive tract from the irritating effects of gastric contents. Compotes, jams, and marshmallows have the same effect.
Tea made from dried berries causes sweating. It is used for colds, as well as hypertension.
For heart diseases, berries are used as a diuretic, 200 - 250 g. in a day.
Juice from Sh. berries is drunk 2-3 tbsp. spoons per day for hypertension, heart disease associated with weakened work cardiac muscle, with myocardial dystrophies, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, tachycardia and extrasystole. The treatment course is 3 weeks. Take 200 - 300 grams daily. fresh berries or an infusion of dried ones.
Black Sh. in any form is useful for anemia. As an aid for diabetes mellitus use fresh berries or an infusion of dry ones.
People use dry leaves of Sh: they are crushed into powder and sprinkled on food - cottage cheese, vinaigrette - half a teaspoon 1 - 2 times a day. Accept and decoction of young twigs. They are cut into pieces of 2-3 cm and dried in the shade. To prepare the decoction, pour 3-4 pieces of water into two glasses of water, bring to a boil, boil for 10 minutes, leave for 2 hours. Take a quarter glass a day in fractional doses. The course of treatment is 3-4 weeks, repeated after a two-week break.
An infusion of berries is used to rinse the mouth when tonsillitis, chronic tonsillitis, stomatitis.
An infusion of their dry berries is prepared as follows: 2 tablespoons of crushed berries are poured with a glass of boiling water, left for 4 hours, filtered, and drunk throughout the day in fractional portions (for diabetics), taking into account the amount of liquid allowed by the doctor. After taking the infusions of Sh. Not recommended drink regular tea, because... its tannins precipitate the beneficial substances of the mulberry, converting them into insoluble compounds.
For long-term storage, the squeezed juice is evaporated to the consistency of thick syrup (up to a third of the original volume). This syrup is called bekmes (dushab). It has a pleasant taste and retains all the medicinal properties of Sh.
The waste after squeezing the juice is dried and used to prepare infusions, just like berries.
Fresh pulp is left for fermentation, then used externally for baths and poultices for diseases. joints and neuralgia. For patients with diabetes, the berries are preserved in the form of a thick compote without sugar.
Gingerbread cookies are baked from mulberry pomace, which can be stored for a long time.”

Doctor med. Sciences, Professor A. Turova
Doctor E. Sapozhnikova

Fruits and fruit juice recommended with swelling in the mouth and throat, with dysentery.
Gruel and juice from fresh berries mulberry is used as a remedy against dandruff and promotes hair growth. To do this, apply a cloth bandage with gruel or juice to the scalp at night for 3 - 8 hours.

For senile constipation and hemorrhoids Traditional medicine recommends taking fresh mulberries half an hour before meals 3-4 times a day before meals.

According to Avicenna's descriptions, mulberry stimulates appetite, makes food slip through and quickly removes it. However, with its laxative nature, it sometimes prevents chronic diarrhea and ulcers in the intestines, especially dried mulberries. All varieties of mulberries drive urine. Mulberry bark serves as an antidote for headaches. In his “Canon of Medical Science,” he strongly recommended eating mulberries, believing that they contribute to longevity and preservation of performance, especially in older people.

Avicenna here calls the black sour mulberry and emphasizes that its fresh juice and dried fruits delay the formation of tumors in the mouth and are good for malignant ulcers, and the leaves are useful for toads and sore throats. Rinsing your mouth with juice squeezed from sour mulberry leaves is useful for toothache.

Residents of the Caucasus also believe that mulberry prolongs life

Tea and aqueous extracts from white mulberry leaves are widely used in folk medicine for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, some mental illnesses and epilepsy.

Decoction of red mulberry leaves - 2 tbsp. l. dry leaves pour half a liter of water, boil for three minutes and drink throughout the day like tea. The next day prepare a new portion - with diabetes mellitus.

Young leaves of Sh are no less valuable for nutrition and treatment. On the island of Java, they are even classified as vegetables and are especially recommended for nursing mothers. They contain almost all known vitamins, organic acids, rubber, essential oils, sterols and much more.

It is recommended to take berries (just eat as much as you like!), especially for hypertension, heart and stomach diseases. Mulberry fruits act anti-inflammatory, have blood purifying and hematopoietic properties, normalize impaired metabolism of the whole body, they are recommended for use in obesity and depleted people.

Traditional medicine of Georgia uses infusion of ripe fruits for colds; berry juice - for cough, diluted with water, it is used for stomatitis, tonsillitis; infusion of root bark- as an anthelmintic

Mulberry wood is highly valued - dense, elastic, heavy... It is used as a construction and ornamental material in carpentry and cooperage, even musical instruments are made from it, and yarn, ropes, and ropes are made from bast. Well, the name itself says that you can’t do without it to get silk.

Culinary use

Mulberry fruits are consumed raw, dried, or canned. They are used to prepare jam, compotes, juices, seasonings for culinary products, pita bread, bekmes, adding a minimal amount of sugar.

Mulberry jelly

1 cup mulberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons gelatin, 3 cups water, lemon juice.
Rinse the ripe fruits, remove the stems, and rub through a sieve. Pour gelatin dissolved in cold water into boiling water, add the pureed mass, sugar, and, stirring, bring to a boil, remove from heat, pour in lemon juice, stir.

Mulberry drink with milk

1 cup mulberries, 3 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar.
Rinse the ripe fruits, remove the stems, and rub through a sieve. Combine the puree with boiled cooled milk, sugar, whisk, and cool.

Mulberry jam

Consumption: 1 kg mulberry, 1 kg sugar, juice of 1 lemon. Sprinkle the prepared fruits with sugar and place in a cool place for several hours until the juice appears. Then cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes, remove from heat. The next day, cook until tender, add lemon juice, stir, cool.”

Mulberries in sugar syrup

For such canned food, you can take fruits of any color or a mixture of varieties of different colors. Ripe fruits are washed with cold water, allowed to drain, and then laid out in one layer on oilcloth to dry. During the drying process, the fruits are periodically stirred so that the entire surface is dry. The dried mulberries are passed through a meat grinder. Sugar syrup is boiled at the rate of 1.2 kg of sugar and 300 g of water per 1 kg of fruit. Chopped mulberries are poured with boiling sugar syrup, the mixture is stirred well and packaged hot into sterilized hot jars, filling them to the top.

The filled jars are covered with pre-prepared parchment paper mugs soaked in alcohol. (The diameter of the circles should be equal to the outer diameter of the jar.) On top of the paper circles, the jars are covered with metal lids and sealed. Closed jars are kept at room temperature until cool, then placed in a cool place.

Mulberry crispbread

After making juice or syrup from mulberries, tender pomace is usually left over. They are mixed with wheat flour and small loaves of bread are baked in the oven. When fresh, they are very tasty, and when they dry they turn into gingerbread, which can be stored for a long time without any spoilage.

Black mulberry jam (Armenian cuisine)

Sort the mulberries, remove the stalks, then put the berries on a dish, cover with sugar (half the norm) and leave in a cool place for 5-6 hours. Pour the resulting juice into a bowl, add the remaining sugar, boil the syrup and cool it.
Pour mulberries into the prepared syrup, shake the bowl carefully so that the berries are immersed in the syrup, put on fire and cook until tender. At the end of cooking, remove the foam from the jam.
Product consumption: black mulberry - 1 kg. sugar - 1.5 kg.

Mulberry jam - five minutes

Add sugar to the lye berries and, after leaving for 6-8 hours, boil over low heat for 5-8 minutes. After this, leave again for 5-6 hours, and then boil again for 5-10 minutes. Do this until the jam is completely ready. At the end of cooking, add lemon juice or 2-3 g of citric acid per 1 kg of mulberry to the jam.

Mulberry jam with sugar syrup.

Sugar syrup is prepared at the rate of: per 1 kg of berries, 1.5 kg of sugar for black varieties, 1.2 kg for white varieties and 1.5-2 glasses of water. Pour hot syrup over the berries, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat, after 5-6 hours bring to a boil a second time and cook for 5-6 minutes. After 5-6 hours, cook over low heat until tender. Before the end of cooking, add lemon juice or 3 g of citric acid per 1 kg of jam. The finished jam is packed hot into jars and sealed.

The same jam is produced with pasteurization. Filled jars are pasteurized at 90-95°: jars with a capacity of 0.5 liters - 8-10 minutes, 1 liter - 15 minutes.

Mulberry jam (another recipe).

Pour syrup over the fruits and leave for 3-4 hours. Place in a sieve or colander, and boil the syrup to a boiling point of 104-105°. Dip the discarded fruits into the finished syrup and cook over high heat until tender. At the end of cooking, add lemon juice or citric acid.

Mulberry dumplings

Wash the mulberries, sort them, remove the stalks, sprinkle with sugar and put in a cool place for 20-30 minutes, then place in a sieve or colander, strain the juice and make dumplings.
Serve strained mulberry juice with the finished dumplings.
Ingredients: wheat flour - 3 cups, water - 3/4 cup, eggs - 1 piece, mulberry - 4 cups, sugar - 1/2 cup.

Or - knead the dough for dumplings, roll out, cut out circles. Wash the mulberries and place in a colander, allowing the water to drain. Put 0.5 tsp on the dough. sugar, 1 tsp. mulberries. Form dumplings. Boil in salted water.

Serve sprinkled with sugar or sour cream.

Mulberry marmalade (Bulgarian cuisine)

Rub the washed and stemmed mulberries through a thick sieve, in which only the seeds should remain. Pour granulated sugar into the resulting puree and juice, cook over high heat until tender, stirring constantly. When the marmalade thickens, place it in glass jars, cover with parchment paper and tie.
Product consumption: mulberries - 1 kg, sugar - 0.5 kg.

Mulberry jam

Sort the berries, place in a colander, rinse carefully in the shower, let the water drain and rub through a colander, after removing the stems. Place the pureed mass in a cooking vessel, add sugar and leave for several hours until the sugar is completely dissolved, stirring occasionally. Then cook in small portions until tender (no more than 45 minutes). Shortly before the end of cooking, add citric acid. Cool the finished jam to 35-40 °C, package in dry jars, cover with plastic lids. Store in a cool dry place.

Products: for 1 kg of mulberries - 1 kg of sugar and 1-2 g of citric acid

Mulberry compote

Sort out fresh berries, just picked from the tree, remove the stalks, put them in a colander and place them in a basin or large saucepan with cold water so as not to damage them. Then pour the prepared cold sugar syrup over the mulberries, put on the fire and cook at a temperature of 80 degrees for 20 minutes. Pour the finished compote into prepared jars, leaving 2-3 centimeters to the top.
Product consumption: mulberry - 1 kg, sugar - 1 kg.

Mulberry marshmallow

Prepare mulberry puree as indicated in the recipe for marmalade, place in a basin, put on fire and cook until the bottom of the basin begins to show when stirred. Then spread the marshmallow in a thick layer on clean glass moistened with water so that it dries for several days. Cut the finished marshmallow into square pieces, sprinkle with powdered sugar or loja (wild olive) flour and place in glass jars.

Mulberry kvass

Mash 4 cups of sorted and washed mulberries, pour in 3 liters of cold boiled water, bring to a boil. Strain, add 1 glass of sugar, cool to room temperature, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of yeast, ground with sugar and diluted with part of the syrup. Mix thoroughly, let stand in an open container for 3-4 hours, pour into bottles with tightly screwed caps, putting 4-5 raisins in each, and place in a cool place. Kvass will be ready in 4 days.

Silkovichka

Sort the mulberries (white or black), rinse, remove the stems, add water and cook until completely softened. Then rub the mulberries together with the broth through a sieve, add lightly dried flour mixed with sugar, boil the mixture well and season with sour cream.
The mulberries are served hot.
Product consumption: mulberry-500 g, sugar-1/2 cup, sour cream-1/2 cup, wheat flour-1/2 cup, water-7 cups.

Mulberry pita bread

Sh. berries are crushed to a pasty state and the resulting mass is spread on boards or canvas, followed by drying in the sun.

In those distant times, when there was no Internet, no research was carried out to identify the usefulness of plants, their composition was not specified - the amount of vitamins, macro and microelements, people ate mulberries with pleasure, knew about their benefits, knew how to prepare them for the winter: they cooked them, dried, made wine.

The mulberry is called “tut” - a word of Aryan origin, which is how it is called in India.

Now you can read in various articles that mulberries contain a large number of useful substances: sugars (glucose, fructose), organic acids, essential oils, higher acids, vitamins C, E, K, PP, vitamin B complex and carotene, macroelements (calcium , sodium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium) and trace elements (zinc, selenium, copper and iron).

The mulberry tree or mulberry is a valuable plant: mulberry leaves are the main food product for silkworms, from whose cocoons natural silk is produced, the wood of the tree is used in the production of musical instruments, the berries are edible and very useful.

White berries are sweeter than black ones. But black contains iron necessary for hematopoiesis.

The ripe berry falls off because the stalk of almost all varieties is thin.
Those who didn’t like the fact that the sidewalk near the house was covered with ripe mint berries during the season, cut down the mulberries. However, now the berries are collected and sold on the market, and therefore they put up with this temporary inconvenience.

Owners of a mulberry tree have a special cloth measuring 3 m by 3 m, made of tarpaulin (nowadays cellophane is used) for shaking the berries. The canvas is opened under the tree so that the berries fall on it. Traditionally, all family members and even neighbor children take part in this. The canvas is held suspended, moving under the tree at the direction of the one who sits on the tree and shakes the branches. As a reward for their help, participants in this action receive berries. As a rule, passers-by are also treated.

There is a variety of red mulberry with a strong stalk. This ripe berry needs to be torn from the tree. This variety has a specific, very pleasant taste with a slight sourness.

Black berries are easily soiled - black stains can be wiped off with white berries.

Mulberry is an unpretentious tree: it is not afraid of frost and heat. In the Ararat Valley, temperatures range from -50 to +50. If apricots die from sudden snowfall on flowering gardens, nothing like that threatens mulberries. However, mulberries bloom much later.

The mulberry can be called a cheeky tree - it is easily propagated by seeds. Its unpretentiousness allows it to be planted on any soil. The plant loves moderate watering. The tree tolerates pruning, so the crown becomes denser, acquiring a spherical shape. Mulberry lives up to 200 years, less often up to 300-500.

I remember my grandfather uprooting young shoots under a large tree so that the young tree would not interfere with the adult one.

Nowadays, jam, compotes, jellies, and syrups are made from mulberry fruit.

Mulberry fruits:
- useful for anemia, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, shortness of breath,
- useful for heart function and restoration of metabolism,
- are a choleretic and diuretic agent,
- used for the prevention of diseases of the organs of vision.

In ancient times, Armenians prepared doshab from mulberries.

Doshab is boiled, concentrated fruit juice. Made from grape, apricot or mulberry juice without added sugar. It is used to make desserts: halva and sweet sujukh, as a seasoning for dishes and for medicinal purposes.

Ready-made syrup - doshab protects the body well from infections, relieves fever and strengthens the immune system,
- effective in the treatment of respiratory diseases, tonsillitis and sore throat,
- Helps cope with persistent cough, pneumonia and bronchitis.

Near my grandfather's house there were four mulberry trees of different varieties: black, white and two mixed. Mixed varieties are not the sweetest.

When the berries ripened, my grandfather always said:
- here (mulberry) should be eaten in the morning on an empty stomach. A very healthy and filling breakfast.

You just need to know the following:
unripe fruits strengthen the intestines,
overripe fruits act as a laxative,
After these berries, you should not drink raw water - it acts as a strong laxative.

My grandmother cooked doshab from mulberry fruits, and my grandfather made mulberry.

As long as I can remember, mulberry has always been considered medicinal and was expensive. If vodka cost a ruble, mulberries cost three rubles.

Many mulberry tree owners made mulberries. However, some still make mulberry in our time.

When guests arrived and the owner had mulberries, he brought a bottle with a mysterious look and offered it to those present. Nobody refused it, everyone drank: men and women. If for some reason someone refused to eat mulberry, those present did not persuade:
- you don’t understand anything about this, we won’t translate the product.

The owner said:
- according to the recipe: 30-50 grams.
And he really poured that much.

None of those present objected. The owner could close and take away the bottle, although there was still some drink left in it. No one called the owner greedy - they drink medicine in moderation. Mulberry reaches a strength of sixty-five to seventy-three degrees...

When produced at home, mulberries usually have a noticeable tint of yellowish-greenish tones; when produced industrially, they are completely colorless. Depending on the number of distillations, vodka can contain from 40% to 80% alcohol. The drink can be bottled directly after distillation, or subjected to further aging - the latter usually happens with stronger varieties.

Traditionally, barrels made of mulberry wood are used to age mulberry vodka, the inner surface of which is first fired. The aging period usually ranges from one to five years.

Unaged industrially produced mulberry vodka is transparent, aged - has a rich color - from golden to dark brown, as well as a much richer and more complex taste with woody and herbal notes and a strongly pronounced tart aroma.

Material used from Wikipedia.