I had my first encounter with a mulberry at this weekend's Ferry Building Farmers' Market. For those of you that have never enountered a mulberry in the flesh, they look like a cross between a blackberry and a woolly bear caterpillar. Had they not had a green stem protruding from one end I could easily have been convinced that they were caterpillars indeed. Alas, the flavour is nothing special, not much of anything, in fact.

I did find a special flavour were I did not expect to find it -- among the fresh apricots. Previous experience with fresh apricots had been disappointing; I'd found them not particularly sweet, not particularly flavourful, and rather mealy in texture. But Frog Hollow Farm had a variety that was as sweet and as full of flavour as a dried apricot.