Blackberries and little worms. Throw berries out.. Yes or No..

[Sunny]

Ok yesterday we went and picked berries. No worms. Today I went to pick berries and now a few of the berries I have noticed have little worms in them. We did have a light rain yesterday that dried up as soon as it was over. Could this be it.

I dont want to waste free food. It seems to be only the ripest berries. The slightly squishy ones. But the really firm and slightly sour ones dont have any bugs.

I've googled about this topic. And most places say to just soak berries in salt water and scoop worms off the top of water. Some places said 1 cup of salt per gallon. Is this the correct amount? It says that the worms will leave the berries if soaked in salt water. Some places said soak for 15 minutes. What is the correct time to do this? What is the minimum amount of time to soak the berries.

I would hate for so many berries to go to waste. Would you eat them after being soaked in salt water and then frozen to make jam, cobblers and pies later. Should I stop picking them now. Or should I pick the ones on the bush and dispose of them and wait for the next batch of red berries to get ripe. Should I just pick them, soak them and eat them.

What would you do.

Grr. I see pounds and pounds of berries out there. Ahhh. What do I do now?

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Um ... my chickens would ever so much appreciate a blackberry donation to their food fund.

Hint hint.

JK

 

[FarmerJamie]

I guess I'm old school, I would soak in salt water as indicated, rinse well, and make jam.

Considering the amount of bugs and stuff permitted in commercial food, your berries are probably still cleaner and healthier.

 

[sunsaver]

I would go ahead and try the salt water, just rinse the berries well with fresh water afterwards. If you have a squirt bottle, like an old windex bottle, you can kill all the worms on the bushes to save the crop. Put 1/2 cup of Dawn dish soap in a gallon of water. Spray the berry bushes until they are soaked down to the point of run off. Wait five minutes. Hose the soap and dead bugs off with a water hose. This little organic trick works every time.

 

[hoosier]

I guess I'm old school, I would soak in salt water as indicated, rinse well, and make jam.

Considering the amount of bugs and stuff permitted in commercial food, your berries are probably still cleaner and healthier.

same here

 

[valmom]

And probably true! I would do the salt water soak and rinse rinse rinse the salt flavor off. And I would NOT tell my SO! Or, alternatively, the chickies would love blackberries with the added protein of worms But, I would try the salt water first.

 

[Sunny]

SunSaver thanks for the tip. I will try that with my other bushes. But these worms are not on the outside of the berry. But inside. You can some times see them where the stem was. Or if you pull the berry in half.

Well if I had chickens I may feed them the ones that I suspected of having the worms in them. Bummer I dont have chickens. I do want some though. Our town allows them, even a rooster if few complaints. But I live in an apartment, so no chickens here. I do my best at growing things in pots. I did raise quail for awhile. But didnt want to get in trouble with them.

My SO has a very weak stomach. I always thought guys were supposed to have guts of steel.. LOL.. He gets sick feeling stomach over the littlest things.. LOL..

I guess I can try the salt water bath. So what would you recomend the water/salt ratio be.

 

[sunsaver]

I would just make the salt water as strong as you can. It should kill the worms and make them float to the top because of increased buoyancy. The soap trick may not work on the worms, but it works on all hard shelled insects and flying bugs. Being that they are inside, would make it difficult to kill the with anything. You might want to try Bt powder. Good luck. I'll be interested to hear how it turns out.

 

[pinkfox]

back in the uk we used to go wild blackberry picking all the time and the ripe blackberries would always have those littl ewormy maggoty things...

we just dumped the berries in saltwater and let them sit for a minimum of 12 hours. scooped all the buggits out of the water, rinsed and did it again for another 12 in the fridge.
scoop any remaining wormies and then dump eveyrhting into a collaneder and rinse like crazy (but gently as berries are delicate)

seemed to do the trick, never found worm bits in our jam lol

 

[sunsaver]

Thanks pinkfox! Nice to know that it works in case i get those worms here. I just planted 100 blackberry plants around my place, and plan to make plenty of jelly in the coming years.