Treating mildewed gooseberries

I have a few gooseberry bushes though it's a race between me and the blackbirds trying to pick them! One bush - an old variety - seems very prone to a type of mildew. The berries get coated in a blackish mould which doesn't damage them and it can be scraped off leaving a perfect berry. This year it seems particularly bad but I didn't want to waste them. I decided to try an experiment.

I picked the mildewed berries - about a kg - and put them in a net bag with a pumice stone. I then put them in the washing machine with a very small amount of detergent and medium wash with cold water. I let them have about 20 min or so of being tumbled around in the bag with the stone and then set the machine to drain. I was surprised how well it worked - almost all the black coating was gone, and the agitation also "topped and tailed" them as an added bonus! I rinsed them very well a number of times to make sure no detergent was left and they are now frozen - safe from the birds!