Chocolate 19. Blaeberry

 Day 19.

Blaeberry, Vaccinium myrtilis


Blaeberry, or bilberry, bushes cover the hills here, and they particularly love to grow under tall, high and open canopied pine forests.  Springy deep cushions of them often make walking around the hills hard work - but exhaustion often sees me just give up and fall into their entangled embrace.  Even better when they are covered in their gorgeous berries - recover your dignity with an imporomptu snack!

I like to try and harvest as much as I can in the early autumn - they make wonderful jams, leathers, freeze well, dry well, ferment well.  A blaeberry pie in mid January is such a pick me up in those short gloomy days.  They take patience and time to pick, an exercise in mindfullness that can be really therapeutic - as long as the midges are kept at bay.  Oh and you tick-proof yourself as best you can!

There is a delicious earthiness to the taste of the berries - and we paired them with a wonderful fruity and deepflavoured plain chocolate made by the amazing Pump Street Chocolates using beans grown in the Solomon Islands. 






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