How to clean lingonberries from debris. A bucket of clean berries in minutes Homemade devices for cleaning berries from debris

There are several ways to quickly sort out lingonberries and clean them of debris. All of them differ in the complexity of implementation and the speed of cleaning berries with their use. The most famous and often used are:

1. Cleaning on an inclined surface using a vacuum cleaner turned on for air suction;
2. Cleaning in the basin using a vacuum cleaner configured to suck in air;
3. Cleaning on an inclined surface with a blow-out vacuum cleaner, or with a hairdryer or fan;
4. Sifting in the wind;
5. Sifting on a sieve, the mesh of which is smaller than the diameter of the berry;
6. Cleaning on rough surfaces.

All of them allow you to clean much faster than simply removing debris from lingonberries by hand.

With so much waste, lingonberries cannot be used for culinary or conservation purposes, and their market price is significantly reduced.

In the most common cleaning methods, the principle of cleaning is that the berries are heavier than the garbage. When exposed to a stream of air, the berries either roll off the surface or crumble, and the debris is blown away by air or sucked into a vacuum cleaner.

Less often, cleaning is done due to the fact that debris either sticks to the surface or spills into cells through which the berries cannot pass.

What do these methods look like in detail?

Cleaning on an inclined tray with a vacuum cleaner on suction

In common parlance, this method is also called “rolling berries.” It is suitable not only for peeling lingonberries, but also for sorting almost any other round berries. Its essence is as follows:

1. Take an even wide long one ( more than a meter) a smooth board with sides nailed to it at the edges;
2. The resulting gutter is installed obliquely, resting its lower edge on a bucket or basin into which clean lingonberries will be poured;
3. A vacuum cleaner is installed nearby, and the brush is removed from the hose so that the hose remains open. The vacuum cleaner turns on;
4. Lingonberries and debris are poured into the gutter on top in small portions (1-2 cups each). The berries roll down the chute into the receiving bowl, and the debris remains on the surface of the board and is removed with a vacuum cleaner.

The video below shows how this happens:

If the gutter is installed securely, then one person can peel the lingonberries in this way. With his left hand he scatters berries, with his right he holds the vacuum cleaner hose and removes debris. Considering the size of the entire structure, all these operations can be carried out at home: the chute with a vacuum cleaner will fit in the room.

If there are a large number of lingonberries, this method can be scaled up somewhat: a longer trench is taken (up to 2-3 meters), 3-4 people with vacuum cleaners sit at the edges of it, one pours the berries on top, another directly removes twigs that accidentally fall here from the bucket, needles or leaves.

As a result, in 1 hour you can clean a bucket of lingonberries by yourself. 5-6 people per evening after cleaning “roll out” 12-14 buckets - the entire batch collected during the day.

This method works well if the lingonberries are fresh and have not released any juice. A berry stained with juice sticks to the surface of the gutter and does not roll well.

As a last resort, you can clean lingonberries in this way without a vacuum cleaner, simply picking out debris with your hands or a rag, but this option is more labor-intensive, and cleaning them is much slower.

Cleaning in a basin using a vacuum cleaner set to air suction

This method is not as fast as the previous one, but has the advantage of not requiring the manufacture of a gutter. In it, the berries are poured into a basin in such quantities that they lie in one layer, and the debris on top of them begins to be sucked out with a vacuum cleaner without a brush. At the same time, the lingonberries are mixed with your fingers. The main thing here is to adjust the distance from the vacuum cleaner pipe to the berries so that the leaves and twigs are sucked in, but the lingonberries themselves are not sucked in.

When a portion of lingonberries is peeled, it is poured into another container, the same portion is poured into a basin, and the cleaning is repeated.

After cleaning, lingonberries should not contain any impurities.

Cleaning on an inclined surface with a blow-out vacuum cleaner

The entire device in this version looks the same as in the version with a suction vacuum cleaner, but the only difference is that the garbage is blown out of the gutter by the vacuum cleaner, rather than being sucked up. This method has no obvious advantages, except that it can be implemented not only using a vacuum cleaner, but also using a hair dryer - which is more compact and lightweight. Still, in berry picking areas, especially in camps where visiting hired pickers live, there are usually not a large number of vacuum cleaners.

The peculiarity of this option is also that you need to peel the lingonberries outside so that the garbage does not scatter throughout the room. Here, therefore, you need to decide how to connect the device (hair dryer or vacuum cleaner) to the power supply.

This option has several modifications. For example, in the case in the photo:

The sieve with berries is installed on a large powerful fan from the refrigerator. A stream of air blows debris out of the sieve, the peeled berries are poured into another container, new ones are poured in, they are cleaned in a few minutes - and so on until the batch is completely cleaned.

Sifting in the wind

The principle of this method is the same as the method of sifting seeds: in a strong wind, berries are poured from one container to another, from a fairly high height - 1-1.5 m. In this case, heavier berries fall with a slight deviation and fall into the lower container, and light debris and leaves are carried away by the wind.

The video below shows this option on a ship that transports forest pickers:

Here the air pressure is formed precisely due to the speed of the vessel.

Perhaps this is the most quick way Peel lingonberries easily and without unnecessary equipment. In just 15-20 minutes you can sift several buckets of lingonberries in this way.

IN real conditions difficulties may arise when implementing this method, since in the forest, where berry pickers’ houses are usually located, there is no strong wind, and in general in the taiga zone in summer it is rare. But if you withdraw in an organized manner a large number of lingonberries by car to an open area - in a field, on a river bank - here you can quickly and easily clean out a very large batch.

Sifting on a sieve, the mesh of which is smaller than the diameter of the berry

This method is usually used in addition to others, since it allows lingonberries to be cleaned of small debris - dust, soil or sand. Leaves and branches will remain along with the berries, and therefore this is usually done either before sifting the leaves, or after it, to completely clean the lingonberries.

The essence of the method is to place lingonberries on a sieve, the mesh of which smaller size berries. As a result, sand, dust, and small pebbles spill through the meshes, and clean berries remain on the sieve. They are then poured into a container with clean lingonberries, and a new portion is poured onto the sieve.

On a note

In this method, by the way, the berries can be watered and washed from dust and sand directly on the sieve. The water will drain, and the lingonberries will remain completely clean.

Cleaning on rough surfaces

This method is, in principle, similar to the very first one - gutter cleaning. The only difference is that the surface of the gutter is lined with fabric (sometimes it is even recommended to put a checkered towel there). At a certain angle, the berries will even roll down the fabric, while the leaves and twigs will remain on it.

This is how this method is implemented using honeysuckle as an example:

The disadvantage of this method is that after each batch of berries the fabric must be removed and shaken out. This slows down the whole process, but, unlike the method with a vacuum cleaner, it allows you to sort out the lingonberries far from a power source, even in the forest.

Of course, they are suitable for cases when there are a lot of lingonberries and you need to sort through many kilograms of them. If you need to sort through 1-2 kilograms at home, it is better to use a simple basin with a vacuum cleaner or a small chute made from scrap materials.

Finally, sometimes it is right to combine several methods to clean the berries faster and more completely. Whether this is worth doing and what methods to combine will depend on what the berry is contaminated with and how severe the contamination is.

This device may be useful for summer residents. If the volume of berries collected is small, they can be cleaned using a Finnish-style berry cleaning device. Its productivity is a bucket of clean berries in 2-3 minutes.

The device consists of a hollow rectangular box measuring 60x115 mm; top part bent in an arched manner. In the upper part of the box, opposite its arcuate part, a window measuring 25 x 115 mm is cut out, to which is attached a tray for feeding unpeeled berries. In the lower part of the box on the window side, a hole with a diameter of 60-70 mm is cut to connect the pipeline hose from the fan. When using a vacuum cleaner (for blowing), its connection diagram and hole sizes are selected according to location.

If there is no ready-made box, then it can be made from waterproof plywood (pre-painting the internal surfaces before assembly) or from tin, but it is better from aluminum sheet, because aluminum is not subject to corrosion. The joint at the corner of a sheet rolled into a box can be glued with a soft or hard pad or corner, or in extreme cases, sealed with tape. In the upper part of the box, which needs to be bent in an arc, we cut out one wall, leaving the sides. Next, we cut both side walls at equal distances, after which we give the arcuate part of the box the necessary curvature. Instead of a box, you can also use plastic pipes.

We cut out the window in the upper part and the hole in the lower part of the box after marking, before assembling the box. After making the box, we attach a tray for feeding unpeeled berries to the upper window, and in its middle part - a clamp or any other device for installing the device. We fit a piece of pipe for the air duct into the hole in the lower part of the box and attach it at an angle of no more than 30-45 degrees.

We install this device using a clamp, for example, to a table, and connect the air duct using a flexible hose to a fan (vacuum cleaner). To collect peeled berries, place an enamel basin or any other container below, directly under the box. To prevent debris from getting into the already peeled berries, we place a plywood or any other shield at an angle to the box. The device is ready for use.

Pour unpeeled berries onto the tray and right hand We drop them evenly in portions through the window into the box. When the berries get into the air flow created in the box by the fan, the berries, having a small windage, fall down under the force of gravity towards the air flow and accumulate in the container. The garbage, having less weight than the berry and greater windage, is carried out by the air flow through the upper arc-shaped part of the box to the outside.

With the help of such a device, a fairly good cleaning of berries from debris is ensured. Lingonberries and, especially, cranberries can no longer be peeled after this. Those who want to completely get rid of debris (remnants of the residue that connects the berries into a bunch) can clean the berries manually, which will take much less time.

Based on materials from the newspaper "Toloka. We do it ourselves"