Mulling over Turkish Superfruit
My visiting sister requested mayhaw jelly and biscuits and I piped up that I had homemade mayhaw in the fridge, but it turned out to be mulberry. My mother made me double apologize for getting her taste buds ready because she would not eat the mulberry, no matter how many yummy noises we made.
Upon questioning, she recalled a tree in her childhood yard that swarmed with white insects and that her mother complained about berry bird droppings on clean sheets hung out to dry. I asked why they didn’t just cut down the tree and my city, modern self was not prepared for her quick answer. Even if their tree vanished, there were countless others in neighbors’ yards. Those sheets would never be safe.
I called her the next day when I opened a pouch of Navitas Naturals, get this, Sun-Dried White Mulberries, dubbed a Turkish Superfood with iron and Vitamin C. The pouch reads that trees came over the Silk Road to Turkey and have served as food for humans and silk worms for thousands of years. I had to reseal the bag so I wouldn’t eat more than my share of these sweet, chewy-yet-crunchy snacks. I don’t know if Mom will try them, but there may not be any left when I see her.
Navitas Naturals also has a new Maqui Powder, which is from the Patagonian Superfruit that Chile’s Mapuche Indians consume. I wonder if they like this delicious purple powder in their breakfast banana smoothies, too.

Spilling the beans on Cinco de Mayo
Ask and ye may receive. At Mexican restaurants my mother always asks to substitute charro or borrancho (drunken) whole beans for refried beans. Her request is typically honored with tasty and more healthy results. Her filling beans come in a bowl with broth and she offers everyone a taste. Try her technique if you’re out celebrating the holiday.

Organize the kitchen
Copco’s wire mesh organizers, a Container Store find, can help you be as OCD about your pantry as I am. Isn’t that what you want? Say you’ve got some stray taco sauce, oatmeal and chi tea packets cluttering up the place. Stand them up straight in these baskets, or get your utensils together. Neatniks can take the baskets to other rooms to keep makeup, scarves or socks where they ought to be.
ddoiron@panews.com