Bathtime for Raspberries

Our September crop of raspberries heralds the approach of fall more than anything else.  We have a light raspberry crop mid-summer, but our bounty really arrives in September. The advantage of the fall crop is the weather is usually a bit cooler and picking is more comfortable.  The disadvantage is all the little black beetles hiding in the raspberries.  We have come to call these pests Raspberry Beetles.  They are nasty at times, and they even bite on occasion.  Their favorite hiding place is inside the berry, tucked out of sight. Picking them off one by one is a pain, as is trying to remove them from inside the berry without mangling the berry.  My washing method for fragile raspberries seems to do the trick whenever they are picked, little tiny beetles or not.  I fill a very large bowl with ice water.  I gently drop in about 2 cups of berries at a time and gently swirl them with my hand.  After a short wait, out crawl the black beetles.  I remove the berries to another bowl of cold water to catch any beetles or anything else that was missed in the first bath.  Then I take out the raspberries and place them on a thick towel to dry.  If freezing I lay the berries on a cookie sheet and pop them in the freezer.  Once frozen I put them in a ziplock bag or plastic jar.  The gentle bath works for beetle removal but does not work as well with chilled berries, so do not store your berries in the refrigerator before washing.  Raspberries need to be washed gently which takes time, but so worth the effort.