Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: nemie on August 14, 2009, 21:48
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Found a nice spot today quite wild with many blackberries very dark ready to pick, I would think I have maybe 5lb+ berries, one thing that is a bit of a put off is tiny maggots, so any advice how to go about prepping them for jam making, I will make a clear jam/jelly.
I made this week my first jam, I used blackberries from my garden and no maggots so I did not have the problem or getting rid of them, so please advise?.
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You could try leaving them in a very large bowl of cold water with a pinch of salt in it. the little critters come out pretty quick and the taste isn't affected by the salt. Good luck!
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My mum always told us that you alway's get maggots in blackberries when it's been raining , I dont know why.
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My mum always told us that you alway's get maggots in blackberries when it's been raining , I dont know why.
I'm sure it is to do with picking them on time or just before and not after they become ripe.
Thanks HilaryG, I shall try the water salt thing over night.
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I don't think it needs to be as long as overnight, I only ever leave them for 30 mins to an hour (does this mean I'm eating maggots???). :tongue2: :D
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If you are making jelly you wouldn't be eating maggots anyway..would you..they'd stay in the jelly bag :lol:
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If they've been heated up to jam temperature, there'll nothing maggoty about them anymore ! :D
Rob 8)
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I just skim off any that float out when I rinse the berries--- anything else becomes jam :lol: :lol:
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I always soak fruit veg with insect life on it in a bowl of water to which a very small amount of washing up liquid has been added. The washing up liquid breaks to surface tension and allows the water to get into the insects breathing holes (spiracles) and then they drown and float. A 10 -20 minute soak is fine. Rinse well and you should be bug free. The amount of soap left after rinsing is no more than would be present on your dishes after washing up and rinsing.
Kitti
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Well There was a lot of berries I could have had a good 10 jars of jam/jelly, thing is I chicken out, I just could not get past the thought of maggots as I was making the jelly, I just kept seeing them blue bottles on the berries and the maggots in the bucket and I ended up binning the juice after a whole night in the filter jelly bag.
Next year I will go a bit early and pick the berries when red/black and not when soggy black.
Still I made my first jam from a blackberry bush that was hidden in my garden no maggots in these berries, and the jam has set very well, all family like it.
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My mum always told me not to pick the fruit after a shower of rain because that's when the bugs go into them. I picked some on Saturday and didn't find any beasties but Saturday was fine and sunny.