VALLEY CITY, N.D. It all started with some jelly Michael Kjelland ate more than 20 years ago. "I was up at my grandparents' place for breakfast and my grandma handed me a jar of jelly," he said. It was a jar of mulberry jelly that family frien.
Michael Kjelland, a professor at Mayville State University, and Jim Walla, a retired North Dakota State University research scientist, secured the patent on the prolific berry-producing tree in 2018. It’s been a yearslong project for the pair that is now bearing fruit.