Do you rinse/wash/soak blackberries?

[Sparrowlegs248]

Someone mentioned on another post about soaking them to get the WORMS out. I have never done this. Until today. Ds1 has been eating his own bodyweight in blackberries, straight off the Bush most days. God only knows how many baby maggots he's ingested. not envy.

Definitely. Fruit flies don’t just stick to bushes next to roads or below waist height to lay their eggs... blackberries are always full of them!

I once saw a worm poking out one I was just about to eat, it was like a threadworm. I find it hard to eat them now. I did eat a few on a bike ride this week but I still felt a bit icky about them.

None have ever made it home tbh. DDs eat them as fast as I can pick them.

Always soak with a dash of salt. So many tiny beasties float out, it's amazing.

WTAF! I always assumed if you couldn't see anything on them, there wasn't anything on them!

Does this also apply to the raspberries I've been growing in the garden and eating for weeks too?

Probably. They get right in the middle. Sorry.

Yeah I soak mine. However, I do eat them straight off the bush when picking a although I will give them a quick check for biddies.

Last week my neighbour knocked on with a huge bowl of blackberries her and her daughter had picked. I planned to use them for chutney and jam. I left them on the side. 2 mins later the biggest spider I'd ever seen was on top of them. It was brown with yellow and White markings. How did they not notice? Or me for that matter? With its size and the amount of time I'd definitely would have seen that monstrosity stomping around my house.

Perhaps it was curled up inside a big blackberry.

Yes but in fairness mainly because my mother has instilled a random terror of the nasties in blackberries in me at a young age...all terribly vague...i have developed a sneaking suspicion of some level of explosion being hidden in an unwashed BlackBerry

But I have never seen maggots etc in them before during or after soaking so not really sure if it's needed really

We soak ours because my mother always did. We didn't always get floating bugs but it was often enough to want to make sure my blackberries were protein free when I was in charge of them.

I know they won't kill you if eaten, just not something I like the idea of eating.

I didn't see any worms on mine-surely you can see them and not pick those. If there are loads I would look elsewhere.

I do, but I also eat them straight off the bush so hey ho.

You can’t pick them off, they are inside the fruit

www.newlifeonahomestead.com/how-to-get-worms-out-of-blackberries/

OMG I didn’t even know this was a thing. I have never soaked them. I always eat straight from the bush!!!