I may be doing something unnecessary or I might be reinventing the wheel, but having picked rowans for the first time yesterday I asked around and discovered there should be as little extraneous detritus in them as possible before moving on. I poured them all into a sink of water in the vain hope that garbage floats and berries sink or vice versa no such luck. I then started scooping out a sieve full at a time and picking it over Im 41 I dont have enough life left to do that to 8lbs. of fruit it took ages. But then I realised that the general rubbish stuck to your hands. If you scoop the fruit out and let it run through your fingers the leaves, sticks and stalks stick to your hands amazingly well and any that get away land on top of the bed of berries and are easily picked out.
About the first tenth took me about an hour to pick over using a sieve; the remainder took about 40 min using that method. I washed the sink poured them all back in to clean water and scooped them out again, picking them over for any bits I missed, and found more stuff in the bottom of the sink and really dirty water, so did that another three times until the water ran clean.
What a palaver but it would have taken hours if Id not twigged (sorry) this method of washing them (that those in the know probably know all about).
AJB
About the first tenth took me about an hour to pick over using a sieve; the remainder took about 40 min using that method. I washed the sink poured them all back in to clean water and scooped them out again, picking them over for any bits I missed, and found more stuff in the bottom of the sink and really dirty water, so did that another three times until the water ran clean.
What a palaver but it would have taken hours if Id not twigged (sorry) this method of washing them (that those in the know probably know all about).
AJB