If you don't let your kid eat blackberries...

[OuchIsLife]

Before they have been washed what do you think will happen? Or what has happened?

Just curious as I've always let my kids eat them as soon as they've picked them and I'm not sure what harm would come to them.

I have a tub of lovely blackberries in the kitchen and ate nearly as many again when I was picking them. Not all were above knee height.

Theoretically I scoff at any issues with tiny spiders/maggots/pee especially if I don't know it's there. Given my age and upbringing I've probably eaten my bodyweight in unintentional organics.

But my blackberries suddenly look a bit less enticing than they did.

I wouldn't mind if she wanted to scoff them straight off the bush, but seeing the amount of bugs that came out of the last batch we foraged when we soaked them put her off the idea!

I still eat them freshly picked. I don't care if I eat a bug. Free protein.

Thing is, it's not contamination! It's an entirely harmless substance in such a small quantity. Our stomachs literally neutralize it.

So it's 100 percent consequence free.

Contamination means when something is actually harmful.

Logic sets us freeeeeeeeee

Well, perhaps we can agree that all the low hanging brambles should be reserved for those who agree that dog pee is not a contaminant, while the rest of us pick from the higher fruits.

There, sorted.

As PP said, we don't pick from below waist height. Also not from roadsides where they've been covered in fumes. Not bothered about bugs though. I'd happily eat off the branch. If I was taking them home then I'd give them a quick rinse.

But my blackberries suddenly look a bit less enticing than they did

Soak them. They will be fine.

We have bushes in our garden and at the park. Never washed them 😬Never from low down and never from the side of the road.

I pick them off the ones I grow. Wild ones are picking from arm height so dogs can't pee on them

We grow a lot of veg that we eat off the plant and live rurally so they’re the highlight of dog walks. They know to pick above piss height.

Rarely sick or sorry although one is autistic, probably not cause by blackberries though 🤣

in 40+yrs of dog ownership I have never seen a dog piss on brambles.

Think about it 😂How close would they have to get to cock their leg and hit the bush - and what would be the likely consequences 😱.

my bare arms are shredded just walking past them ATM, my dogs give them a very wide berth.

You have an eclectic dog.
I see it a lot, and I live in bramble land.

When we were kids we would soak them in cold water in the kitchen sink before eating them, as little bright green worm-type things would crawl/float out of them. I vividly remember doing this as we had a huge garden with loads of blackberries, but these days my DC won’t eat them so we don’t pick them.

I once ate a spider doing this. So that.

I am intrigued by the hidden post - on a fairly innocuous thread on brambles!

Me too- we’ll never know!

@OuchIsLife I can’t tell if your post is a joke, I’m pretty stunned that anyone would have these views.

Of course they won’t get worms it’s a totally different organism. Is this an OCD/health anxiety related question? Road pollution, less than you’d get from walking down the road. Dog wee, what’s the probability of a dog weeing on that particular bush? Miniscule I imagine.

I dont know why they hid that post. Was just saying I had picked loads, made fruit leathers and gummies and my freezer was full.
Obviously something in that was verboten

Why is it censoring my post?

I'd rather eat a few wormy things than pesticides.

I literally only mentioned what I made with the fruit and that my freezer was full. absolutely nothing sinister at all

Put them in an air tight sealed box overnight and watch the tiny maggots crawl out of them.

Blackberries are filled with them.

Dog wee, what’s the probability of a dog weeing on that particular bush? Miniscule I imagine.

In my local park there is a massive bank of them. The dogs pee as they pass, not that well up on dogs, but possibly because they can smell the last lot of pee?
Brambles tend to be where people walk their dogs (unless you have them in your garden)
Brambles don't tend to be bush like, they are a spread out tangle of limbs, usually lots of different starting points (roots?) all massed together. More to aim at.
There was a little mouse on my bramble the other day, nibbling a berry.

🤣🤣🤣

My kids eat blackberries straight off the bush. Above waist height, not on a main road. It's their favourite part of summer.

They also spend a lot of time outside, digging for worms and climbing trees, and get dirt all under their fingernails. I often forget to tell them to wash hands before they eat a snack and then realise their nails are filthy.
However they are also almost never ill. Just gone a whole school year with barely a cough and not one day off for the 6 year old.

We've been out picking today actually. I don't like them but the dc eat them as we go along. The ones that make it home get a good soak in water with lemon and there was only one occassion where we discovered loads of worms in them upon soaking.