Pick your own

name for them!

For me it's whinberries but the options are rife: wim, wind, whortle, hurtle, myrtle, bil, blae, blue and (in Ireland) fraughans are all used in the British Isles.
They're nothing like the plump, tasteless cultivated monsters flown in from Chile and South Africa. 

The last Sunday in July is the traditional day to pick them and local knowledge should tell you where to go if you live near hills and moors.

Where I come from, people spoke of 'taking the kettle to the hills' for a day's picking. As a child, I thought it meant that you filled the kettle with berries (one by one down the spout?) but on reflection must have meant taking it along for brew-up while you worked - they were saleable of course.

My mother never forgot the horror when the weekly market bus up the valley accidentally crushed a basketful of whinberries while the woman who was taking them to sell had her back turned  - hours of work became to a purple puddle in an instant.

For anyone interested to know more, there's is an excellent round-up of all things Vaccinium myrtillus  here including how to make 'mucky-mouth pie'. I shall be making one today when the granddaughters come round.