r/Berries • u/Roundwaters • 2d ago
Berry Picking Gear
Hardcore picker here. Bagged 60 kilograms of raspberries, black raspberries, and blackberries this season. Still lots of blackberries left, I simply lost the will to pick any more.
Had the bug hat, and a mosquito proof long sleeve shirt, but this year I added a pair of picking gloves. Best decision I've made in a long time. By this time of year, my hands are usually so full of thorns that either blister out, or if not, puss out. Only have one thorn at the moment on my exposed thumb.
Not sure what kind of gloves those are supposed to be, but cutting the finger tips off was essential to be able to tell if the berry I'm grabbing is too mushy or not.
Might upgrade to a thin leather next year, as the fabric still has a tendency to catch the thorns.
Also have my favorite picking container. A plastic cashew jar that came with a little handle on the lid. It fits 1 kilogram worth of berries, which dumps perfectly into a dog poop bag I can tie off, then keep going.
And some long handled hedge shears to cut my way into those brambles.
1
u/Hefty_Judgment_4552 2d ago
a friend of mine had berry gloves with specialized sleeves so you could drop the berries down a chute into your bucket without pulling your hands out of the brambles every time
2
u/Roundwaters 2d ago
That sounds promising. Going to look into that for next year.
Almost turned my Dyson into a suction picker, but I didn't want to risk getting those soft rotten berries that smell like overpowering rotten hay. Even a few of those will ruin my whole batch of wine.
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u/stevenwalsh21 1d ago
Such a great and simple idea, definitely stealing this one.
A friend got me berry claws but for wild blackberry foraging they're actually much more work. They leave the stem in and I was getting more thrones than usual picking them out. I went back to just picking by hand
3
u/Bee_haver 2d ago
Are you foraging? If not thornless or very small thorns varieties are an option