Shahtoot Season: White vs Black Mulberry (Toot) and Dried Ones (Video)

Transcript

Mulberry Moments

Mulberries pop up for a few weeks each spring, and they’re sweet, colorful, and a little messy. Let’s see how to pick, clean, store, and enjoy them.

Short, Sticky, Purple Season

Shahtoot season is short, sticky and purple. White shahtoot is very sweet and mild, while black shahtoot is a richer sweet-sour that can stain everything. Both keep only a couple of days, so wash them gently just before eating and buy only what you’ll finish.

One Fruit, Many Names

Yes, toot is the everyday Urdu and Hindi word for mulberry, and shahtoot, meaning “king mulberry,” refers to the bigger, better fruit you see at the market. Botanically they’re Morus trees, and each little bump on the fruit grew from its own tiny flower, forming a soft cluster rather than a true berry.

Spring Window

Shahtoot is a spring fruit that ends as the real heat arrives. In Karachi and Sindh it appears in late March and April, in Lahore, Faisalabad and most of Punjab from April to May, and in Peshawar, the Potohar and the hills it can stretch into June. That’s all you get.

Choosing the Best

Fruit that’s shaken off a roadside tree onto a sheet is often the sweetest, because it fell when fully ripe. Look for deep colour, black-purple for kala shahtoot, creamy white for safaid, plump and glossy berries beat wet, flat ones. A sweet aroma is right; sour, vinegary or boozy smells mean it’s turning. Also glance at the bottom of the basket for any mould.

Gentle Wash

A tap can flatten shahtoot, so use a bowl of cool plain water. Fill a large bowl with about two litres, drop in up to 250 grams of berries and let them sit for two to three minutes. Dust sinks, tiny insects float up. Lift the berries out with your hands or a slotted spoon, then give them a quick, gentle rinse under a low stream in a colander.

Keep Fresh

If they’re past their best but not mouldy, cook them into a quick sauce with a little sugar for dahi or kheer. For storage, keep unwashed berries in a single layer on a paper towel inside a shallow box in the fridge for two to three days. At room temperature they should be eaten the same day, as spring heat ferments them fast. For longer keeping, wash, drain well, spread on a tray, freeze, then bag them. They’re perfect for sharbat and shakes later on.

Nutrient Snapshot

A cup of fresh mulberries, about 140 grams, contains roughly 60 calories, a couple of grams of fibre, a good share of daily vitamin C, and more iron than most fruits. It’s mostly water, making it a light snack. The claims that mulberries lower blood sugar refer to leaf extracts sold as supplements, not the fruit itself, so if you have diabetes, talk to your doctor before using them as a remedy.

Simple Recipes

For a quick shake, blend 100 grams of mulberries with 200 ml cold milk and a small banana, no added sugar needed. A simple chaat uses 150 grams of long shahtoot cut into pieces, a pinch of chaat masala and fresh mint. To make sharbat, simmer 500 grams of washed black mulberries with 250 ml water and 200 grams sugar for ten minutes, strain, stir in a tablespoon of lemon juice, cool and bottle. Serve a few tablespoons in chilled water with a pinch of kala namak.

Traditional Uses

Unani medicine has long made sharbat-toot-siyah, a black mulberry syrup, and many households use a spoonful as a gargle or sip for a sore throat. It’s a soothing, sour-sweet tradition, not proven medicine. If a sore throat comes with high fever, trouble swallowing or lasts more than a week, see a doctor.

Allergy Clarification

Every spring Islamabad and Rawalpindi suffer from pollen, and the tree often blamed is called “jangli shahtoot.” That’s actually paper mulberry, a different plant in the same family but a different genus. Its fruit is a fuzzy orange-red ball, not the shahtoot you buy. While mulberry pollen can bother some people, the major seasonal issue comes from paper mulberry.

Fun Facts

A couple of surprising facts: white mulberry leaves are the food of silkworms, giving us mulberry silk. And unripe green mulberries, along with the milky white sap in leaves and stems, can upset your stomach, so stick to ripe fruit.

Who to Watch

Babies and toddlers can enjoy soft ripe mulberries, mashed for babies over six months and cut into small pieces for toddlers. No sugary sharbat for babies under one, and never honey under one. Fresh berries are fine for people with diabetes, but sharbat and dried mulberries count as sugar. Mulberry leaf products combined with diabetes medication need a doctor’s okay, and dried berries are high in potassium, so kidney patients should consult a renal dietitian. A large bowl of soft fruit can loosen motions, and unripe fruit may cause stomach upset.

Thanks for Watching

For the full details, read the post on thecareonline.com, remember this is lifestyle advice, not medical guidance.