Wild Blackberries

[Moopmoop]

Hey all,

Today I've been and picked myself some lovely looking wild blackberries, I've now got them soaking in water in the hope that any nasties hiding inside are going to come out. Does anyone do something different to get the bugs out etc?

[Thelma Sanders]

Don't leave them in the water for long - or they'll be tasteless.

I usually just run mine under the tap

[scarey55]

I usually make bramble jelly with mine, that way any nasties get sieved out

[veggiechicken]

I just look mine over - if they look OK I eat them.
I eat lots from the bushes while I'm picking - and they're not washed, so I don't wash the ones I bring home either.

[Mumbles]

Never occurred to me there'd be nasties inside them, have eaten them straight from the hedgerow for years, god knows what I've eaten with them!


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[Verinda]

Don't worry about it, we've all been eating blackberries containing nasties for years and survived to tell the tale!

[Moopmoop]

It's one of them things where the more you think about it the more you worry about it. I've probably found about 15-20 maggots from a large punnet of berries. I'm 100% sure that I'll have accidentally eaten nasties before and not given it a second thought but it's been quite a while since I've picked wild berries and I got a little paranoid about what would be inside them.

[Martin H]

I do what my mum does: leave them in a bowl of salted cold water for 20 minutes. All the little maggots float to the top so then rinse and use.

I do the same with raspberries unless I'm eating them straight off the cane in which case they get a careful visual inspection before I eat them.

That way if I do get one it'll be inside the berry and I'll never know. It's spent its entire life eating the berry so that's what it's going to taste of!

[Two_Sheds]

I give them a quick dip in salty water, same as for lettuce & cabbage which always come with free gifts

The buglies float to the top pretty quickly

[Tripmeup]

I just look mine over - if they look OK I eat them.
I eat lots from the bushes while I'm picking - and they're not washed, so I don't wash the ones I bring home either.

Exact same for me...
I am in the envious position of living on a quiet country road that has loads of wild blackberry and raspberry bushes growing on it

[Moopmoop]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your help.

Other half wouldn't eat any of the berries after seeing the bugs come out of them, all the more for me. He has nothing to do with the gardening and would be disgusted if he knew about the nasties that come out of the lettuces and broccoli etc. As the saying goes, what you don't know can't hurt you.

[DuncanM]

out of interest why salted water not just plain tap water?

With lettuce I generally soak it for a little while to let any bugs to rise to the surface, that being said I'm not too fussy, I'll take whatever extra protein I can get :P

[Noosner]

I do a quick rinse under the tap and a visual inspection. My Dad (91) loves picking roadside blackberries and bungs them straight in the pan together with any other lottie fruit I give him. He's v short sighted, so we've no idea what goes in. He then boils it all to b*ggary and it turns into a fruit slurry. But it gives him a lot of pleasure so we just close our eyes and swallow!

[BUFFS]

I usually make bramble jelly with mine, that way any nasties get sieved out

but that's half the flavour, and any weevils will add a crunch to them...

[veggiechicken]

I suspend my veggie diet when it comes to eating fruit and veg. I wouldn't knowingly eat anything that walked but I'm sure the odd one has found its way into my stomach