[Maccbean]

Where I walk the dogs there are acres of what I have discovered to be bilberries.  I saw them last year, but didn't know what they were.  This year I have decided to make jam.  Problem is picking them.  They are very small and there is lots of bush.  I have googled it and there is an implement called a bilberry scrabbler, but I can't out what it looks like, let alone buy one.  Does anyone have a technique they can share?

[Aunt Sally]

The best description I can find is:

"..a dustpan-shaped implement with a metal comb attachment that speeds the process considerably by comparison with hand-picking."

[Livinhope]

I can see the idea but wouldn't you end up with a load of leaves and twiggy bits as well?

[tosca100]

You could pick the bits out later. I used to go picking in my youth, but you really need to be able to get on to the ground.......I can get down, can't get up.

The flavour, I believe, is far better than the imported blueberries, but because they are such a pain to pick I used to pad them out with apple or use them as a hot sauce to pour over a meringue with vanilla icecream...blue mountain we used to call it! Yummy

Happy picking.

[Livinhope]

Like me, if I'm up I can't get down and, if I get down I can't get up.  K*******d :blink:

[Maccbean]

Actually, as it is very hilly, lots of them are at knee to waist height, so it's too harsh on the old joints!!

[Bernard]

Glad to hear you have discovered bilberries. A few years ago I was gobsmacked to find someone who had never heard of them, but he came from an area which had none. It had not previously occurred to me that there was such a place.

There is a long-standing tradition of bilberry-picking around here, although it is in decline like most traditions due to the growth of our telly/computer game 'living by proxy' society.

The correct way to pick sufficient bilberries is to con several people (children are easiest) into helping, then keep the lion's share for yourself. My family is wise to it now, so I am starved of bilberries.

Best to bake them in pies with plenty of sugar. Very succulent indeed. Blueberries are absolutely nothing by comparison. As mentioned earlier, some people mix with apples to spin them out but to me this is making a sow's ear out of a silk purse.

[Livinhope]

We dont get billberries here because its chalk and as they grow on moorland I imagine they like acid soil.