Found and Foraged

Hey guys! Guess what! I will tell you — I had to return a library book today. It’s pretty hot and muggy out there, so I really wasn’t feeling the desire to get on my bike. But I remembered that there’s a bike path I’ve been meaning to explore, one that cuts along a creek and is more of a straight shot from my house to the library. I headed out, and then I found these:

I saw a bunch of them on the path as I zipped by. Were they blackberries? Since my destination was the library, I was conveniently able to find a book about wild edibles, and I looked blackberries up, to see if there were any deadly look-alikes. Nope. Excellent.
When I got back to the berries, I realized they were growing on tall trees (though there were branches within reach) — not blackberries. I grabbed the book out of my bag and looked up mulberries. The berries matched; the leaves matched. I tasted one ripe berry — nicely sweet. Luckily, I always stuff a few of my (oft reused) plastic bags in my canvas tote, so I pulled one out and started picking. I’d guess I got about a pint this time — I want to go back in a few days’ time and try to pick a quart (there are multiple trees at various points along the path) to make juice, possibly for jam-making.
How exciting! In other DIY-food news, I made a loaf of half-rye/half-white bread yesterday. The dough was a bit stiff, although not dry, so I was really happy when it rose well. In fact, it’s pretty much the perfect size, and the texture is really nice — too bad the bottom stuck to the pan!

I can’t remember ever having bread stick before. It should be pretty easy to prevent, now that I know it can be a problem with the pan I like to use (a deep Corelle loaf pan). At least it’s just a cosmetic issue — the bread tastes pretty fantastic!
I also made soy ice cream yesterday (I used a regular ice cream recipe but subbed in soy milk and Silk creamer), since S doesn’t get on with lactose. Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s great that most (all?) commercial soy ice creams are vegan, but it’s sort of a shame that there’s not a conventionally prepared (ie, custard-based) non-dairy ice cream on the market. It tastes so good! And the quart I made cost roughly four dollars (that’s including the cost of the ice for the machine, as well as the egg yolks, although I don’t think I should include those, because they were in the freezer, leftover from an angelfood cake). Much better than the $3-$6 you usually have to pay for a pint!