Mulberries connect orchard work with dried fruit, pekmez and pestil. Documented examples from Çemişgezek/Ulukale and Halabja show how regional food traditions can be studied through growers’ organisations, local records and food-science research.
One familiar fruit, more than one species
Tût is a Kurdish name for mulberry, a fruit associated with both fresh eating and preserved foods. Botanical names help distinguish the trees behind everyday names. Kew records the native range of black mulberry, Morus nigra, as western and southwestern Iran. [1] PROSEA describes white mulberry, Morus alba, as native to China and widely cultivated elsewhere. [2] These distributions do not establish a single exclusively Kurdish birthplace for all mulberries. Nor does the name white mulberry guarantee white fruit: the Bishop Museum’s botanical description includes white, pinkish and purple fruit in Morus alba. [3] Species, cultivar and fruit colour should therefore be kept distinct.
A documented orchard economy in Çemişgezek
Ulukale, in Çemişgezek district of Tunceli/Dersim, provides a specific regional example. The provincial culture directorate identifies the village with mulberries, pekmez and pestil. [5] A September 2021 agricultural-directorate announcement records the establishment of the Ulukale and Bozağaç villages’ agricultural development cooperative. Its organisers described production, quality, biodiversity, traceability and better marketing as objectives. [4] This is evidence of growers working to sustain a named local product, rather than an anonymous timeless pantry. The announcement discussed a proposed packaging facility; it should not be read as proof that every planned facility was subsequently completed.
Halabja: preservation as a research subject
A study published in Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal in 2022 examined black mulberry, white mulberry and white shahtoot grown in Halabja. The authors compared sun and oven drying and ascorbic-acid treatments, using fruit harvested in April 2021. [6] White mulberry and white shahtoot were both identified as Morus alba, so the study concerns three fruit types rather than three distinct botanical species. The research supplies a concrete Iraqi Kurdistan example of cultivation and drying. Its harvest date and experimental treatments are features of that study, not a universal mulberry calendar or a household preservation recipe.
Dried fruit, pekmez and pestil
These are different ways of using the harvest. Dried mulberries retain the fruit’s form as water is removed; pekmez is a concentrated sweet product, while pestil is a thin fruit preparation dried into sheets. Ulukale’s local record specifically names mulberry pekmez and pestil. [5] Satıl and Selvi’s ethnobotanical survey, covering 53 provinces and 74 districts, places mulberry within a wider tradition of pekmez production from several fruits. [7] The regional connection is real without requiring every family to use the same flour, thickener, cooking vessel or name. For a contemporary serving idea, dried berries can accompany walnuts, while a little mulberry syrup can be served with bread or yogurt; these suggestions are not claims about a uniquely documented ancient recipe.
The connection with silk is through the leaves
Silkworms make silk; the berries do not. FAO’s account describes mulberry leaves as the traditional feed of Bombyx mori and explains how sericulture helped spread mulberry cultivation. It also discusses fruit and other uses separately. [8] PROSEA likewise records edible fruit and leaves used for silkworm feeding. [2] This distinction explains why a tree may matter to both food and textile economies. It does not, by itself, prove a continuous silk industry in every Kurdish town or identify the exact route taken by every historic silk shipment. Those local histories need dated evidence about workshops, growers, trade and labour.
What makes the local history worth preserving?
The strongest account follows identifiable people, places and practices: a growers’ cooperative in Çemişgezek, a named village’s processed foods, and researchers investigating Halabja fruit. [4] [5] [6] Together they show that mulberries belong to present agricultural livelihoods as well as inherited food knowledge. Recording cultivar names, harvest dates, drying methods and the people who perform that work would make the history more specific still. Botanical origin, culinary use and silk production are connected subjects, but they are not interchangeable evidence. Keeping them distinct gives Kurdish orchard history greater substance than a claim that one tree alone clothed the entire Silk Road.
Sources and further reading
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Plants of the World Online, Morus nigra L.: accepted species and native range, western and southwestern Iran; public indexed record consulted.
- PROSEA, Morus alba L., record 346: distribution, edible fruit and silkworm-leaf uses.
- Bishop Museum, Plants of Hawaiʻi, Morus alba: botanical fruit description, including colour variation; public indexed species record.
- Tunceli Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, 21 September 2021: Ulukale and Bozağaç cooperative, objectives and proposed packaging investment.
- Tunceli Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate, Çemişgezek: Ulukale’s mulberries, pekmez and pestil.
- Dlkhwaz Ahmed Hama et al., Response of Black, White and White Shahtoot Mulberry Fruits to Ascorbic Acid Treatment and Drying Methods, Diyala Agricultural Sciences Journal 14.2 (2022), pp. 152–164, DOI 10.52951/dasj.221402114; authors’ abstract via DOAJ.
- Fatih Satıl and Selami Selvi, Traditional molasses production from different plants in Anatolia and its ethnobotanical features, Biological Diversity and Conservation 15.1 (2022); public research abstract.
- Manuel D. Sánchez, FAO, Mulberry, an exceptional forage available almost worldwide: introduction and genetic-resources section, leaf use in sericulture and separate fruit uses.
- Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, Morus alba—fruit and leaves, Mexico, 25 April 2020, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0 photograph.