The way I do it, is put them in a saucepan of cold water, sprinkle lightly with salt, believe me, you don;t taste it, about a hour should do it, you'll see any insects still there floationg to the top, skim them off, rinse the Blackberries for use.
If I pick wild blackberries which seem to be more dirty.dusty than home grown ones, I rinse them in a sieve under running water and let them drain on some kitchen tissue paper.. However, most of are picked from the garden and are so clean that I don't normally need to bother. However, it's probably sensible not to pick blackberries from alongside very busy roads as I've heard they could be heavily polluted from lead from car exhausts.
Hi Wendy,
thanks for your info, i have picked the blackberries from
fields, not near the roadside, However you make an
excellent point, about picking berries near roads, they
probably would be badly polluted.
best wishes Andy.