Combined function berry picking and washing container

Sweet Tatorman's picture

Whenever possible I like to repurpose items rather than recycle at the material level. I get a lot of use out of empty milk jugs. The photo below is the container that I use for both picking and washing strawberries. I poked holes in the bottom using a soldering pencil which are about 3/16" or 4mm. I find this works best if the total area of the drainage holes is small enough that the container can fill at the maximum flow rate of your spigot which permits the berries to float and rotate under the agitation of the stream of water.

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ClareBroommaker's picture

Very good. I think people with some sorts of berries could cut a comb into one of two edges of the jug to do a combing style harvest directly into the jug.

One of my favorite harvest-then-wash containers was an old supermarket hand basket. It held a lot, was sturdily made, and easy to carry. I could hose down whatever was in it before bringing into the house. That was especially helpful when bringing in root vegetables. Unfortunately this is yet another item on my list of lost items.

When we started growing enough to do a lot of canning, we ended up buying the largest old metal colanders we came across at the thrift stores. Sometimes I take them to the garden and pick beans ,tomatoes, greens, etc directly into them.