Do you wash your fruits before Soaking it?
I remember as a child rushing to the grocery bags when my parents returned from their grocery trip only to burst open the raisins and prunes and quickly throw a few in my mouth before I was caught. lolol. There is a saying that ignorance is bliss.
Since we started commercially making Soaked Fruits for Caribbean Fruit Cakes in 2012 this blissful ignorance was cured with knowledge. I want to encourage you to WASH ALL FRUITS BEFORE SOAKING! And yes I am shouting not only for you to hear me through the screen of your device but to ensure that your health is preserved. There is another saying that says “What doh kill does fatten” meaning, there is nothing to worry about the most that can happen is I will get fat.
We have another Caribbean saying that says “what eye doh see heart doh grieve” meaning, what your eyes don’t see will have no implications on heart. You will not be bothered.
We support an importer on the island who ships in our raw material. In 2019 we began to expand and our order was larger than before so we got a larger number of boxes that we had to sort through.
The following is a list of things we have found in our boxes of raisins (raisins were the major culprit):
- Black Stones (this is important as the raisins were also black)
- White Stones
- Small rocks
- Long hair
- Screws
- Metal screw washers
- Pieces of metal construction nails
- A piece of hacksaw blade
Thankfully, our process includes washing our fruits before soaking and grinding and it was during this process that we noticed we were hearing metal sounds against our stainless steel trays.
We cannot emphasize enough, please wash your fruits in running water before soaking. Washing twice will remove sediments.
You can place them in a strainer/colander and run water on them for 3-5 minutes.
Be careful with prunes as too much washing will cause them to get soft too quickly in the process. Once washed, then proceed with the soaking process of your soaked fruits.