Eye candy

It's whin/wim/whortle/hurtle/blae/bilberry/Vaccinium myrtillus time again!

‘I saw ripe bilberries gleaming here and there, like jet beads in the heath: I gathered a handful and ate them.’
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre


We gathered rather more. They are delicious both raw and cooked, and they freeze well too. Indeed they sometimes froze on the bush in the days when early frosts occurred.

A traditional remedy for eye problems, it was falsely put about that bilberries were fed to RAF pilots to improve their sight for bombing raids during WW2 (according to this interesting blog entry.)

You do need sharp eyes to spot them.