How To Wash Blackberries
Blackberries can be picked in abundance in the summer months and kept for all year round use. Often they have lots of worms and creepy crawies in them.
So how should I wash them I hear you cry.
Well I’m glad you asked to start with you need to do this in batches, now what i mean by that is if you’ve just picked 5lb of blackberries you can’t wash them all in one go, you have to do them in small batches.
So put your first batch of blackberries in a bowl and swill them out a couple of times. This gets rid of the worst of the foreign bodies. Then leave the blackberries in the bowl immersed in clean cold water. This encourages all sorts of things to come to the top, the bits and pieces that come to the top can be scooped out and thrown away.
After half an hour to an hour of soaking you need to start to use a colander or sieve. Now tip the blackberries into the colander or sieve and now rinse the fruit under a running tap. Then pour the drained blackberries back into the bowl and add clean water. Do this at least half a dozen times going from bowl to colander and back to bowl. Once you’re happy they are clean you can use them or freeze them ready for when you make some blackberry wine.
Freezing Your Blackberries
The best way to freeze your blackberries is to use a pizza oven tray (or any tray). I use a pizza tray as it has holes in which lets the water drain away before freezing.
Place the blackberries on the tray, trying to keep then seperated. Then put the tray full of blackberries into your freezer for half an hour to one hour (no more). Take the tray from the freezer and tip the blackberries into a freezer bag.
The reason for this is if you intend to dip into (use) your blackberries from time to time, maybe to pop them on your cereal or make some jam, then you will be able to take out the required amount of blackberries, defrost and use them. If you just freeze them in a freezer bag they will freeze into a solid block of iced blackberries, the choice is yours and depends on how you intend to use them.
Other uses for blackberries
Another use for blackberries is making jam which tastes so wonderful, and this is a good use of a pound or two of blackberries. Just add equal measures of blackberries and sugar and some lemon juice. Bring to the boil for 10 minutes, leave to cool a little and put into sterile labelled jars. Put finished jam in cool place and let it set.
Now enjoy your blackberry jam.
Click here to find a full blackberry jam recipe with really good instructions.
