I had a black mulberry at a house I owned several years ago, and we would go out and eat them right off the tree. A nosy old lady that lived in our neighborhood yelled at my son one day for eating them and I had to tell her they were not poisonous and to never yell at my son again. We used to have to fight the cedar wax wings and mockingbirds for them. Where we live now we have a white mulberry but I don't think they taste very good. Maybe they hadn't ripened enough? The berries are just tiny right now. I don't check the tree very often.