>The mulberries?  Why do they need to be soaked?

We used to pick wild berries of all kinds (in Houston, when I was growing
up).  We never ate mulberries because the trees were always infested with
tent worms.  We soaked the other berries to drown out the worms.  We just
put them in a bucket with water and after a while all the dead or dying
worms would be in the water, not the berries.  Maybe it's not like that in
the north?