This is a wild Bilberry picked on August the 6th 2009 to make me a fruit pie. Bilberries are hard to grow in cultivation so the majority are picked from the wild moors and heaths as they like damp, acidic  soil. The fruit are small, very dark skinned with dark sweet juice, just right for those pies.

As a deep blue fruit, bilberries contain dense levels of anthocyanin pigments and are thought to be one of the ‘Super Fruits’ that have health benefits.  Below are a host of Bilberry plants or Vaccinium Myrtillus on our local moor. You need a lot of plants for one pies worth of Bilberries.

Below is a Blueberry or a cultivated Vaccinium with larger fruit and an easier plant to grow successfully. This plant is just coming into fruit with paler flesh than the Bilberry but it likes similar acid soil and moisture. The fruit are famous in USA for Blueberry Muffins but they are  not a patch on my Bilberry pie.