Ingredient

Bilberry

The bilberry is a small, dark, wild European berry that grows low on acid moorland and is regularly mistaken for a blueberry. Cut one open and the difference is immediate: a bilberry is purple all the way through, where a blueberry is pale-fleshed. The flavour follows the colour.

Purple to the middle

The pigment in a cultivated blueberry is almost entirely in the skin. In a bilberry it runs right through the flesh, and that is why it stains hands, teeth and pastry in a way a blueberry never does. It is also why it tastes so much stronger: those anthocyanins carry flavour as well as colour.

Bilberries are smaller than blueberries — often no bigger than a pea — and they grow singly on low, wiry shrubs rather than in clusters on a tall bush. Picking is slow and knee-punishing, which is most of the reason they are not sold commercially at any scale.

They go by a long list of local names: whinberry in Wales and the Welsh borders, whortleberry in the West Country, blaeberry in Scotland.

Bilberry against blueberry

Flesh

Bilberry purple throughout; blueberry pale green-white. This is the definitive test.

Size

Bilberry roughly pea-sized; blueberry two to three times larger.

How it grows

Bilberry singly on a low shrub, ankle to knee height; blueberry in clusters on a bush up to head height.

Flavour

Bilberry far more intense and more acidic; blueberry mild and sweet.

In cooking

Bilberry colours everything it touches. A bilberry pie is deep purple; a blueberry pie is not.

Season

Bilberry from roughly July to September on British moorland, depending on altitude and season.

What to do with a small, hard-won haul

Nobody picks a kilo of bilberries. Plan around a modest quantity.

• Bilberry pie or tart, the traditional northern English use, where a small amount of fruit colours and flavours the whole thing.
• Stirred raw into thick yoghurt or cream, where the intensity does not need help.
• A small pot of jam, which sets moderately well and is worth the effort precisely because it cannot be bought.
• Over pancakes or drop scones, crushed slightly with a fork and a little sugar.
• In a sauce for game or venison, where the acidity and depth suit strong meat.
• Frozen straight away. They freeze well and a season's picking can be pooled.

Where to find them, and the practicalities

Bilberry likes acid, well-drained soil: upland heath and moorland, open woodland on poor soil, and the edges of conifer plantations. Look on slopes rather than in wet hollows.

The plant is deciduous with small, bright green, finely toothed oval leaves and green, angular twigs — the green twig is a good winter identifier. The berries sit singly in the leaf axils with a small crown at the tip.

Picking is genuinely slow. A traditional bilberry comb speeds it up considerably at the cost of taking leaves as well, which then have to be winnowed out. As with any foraging, be certain of the identification before eating anything, take only what you need, and follow the access rules for the land you are on.

Common questions