Bilberry Bounty
The cache, a camo-taped 35mm film canister, is hidden along Addingham Edge in an area covered with masses of bilberry shrubs.
To Reach the Cache Location: see GCA962F Gnarled Eco-Warrier for parking and other waypoints and simply follow the trail past that cache and GCA98A3 The Swastika Stone to the cache location.
The Common or European blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), aka bilberry, blaeberry (Scotland), wimberry and whortleberry, is a holarctic species of small deciduous shrub with edible blue fruit. It is more precisely called the common bilberry or blue whortleberry to distinguish it from other Vaccinium relatives.
It lives in the acidic soils of heaths, boggy barrens, degraded meadows, open forests and parklands, slopes, and moraines. It seems to be unaffected by climate change.
It grows to 10–46cm high and has light green simple leaves in alternate arrangement that turn red in autumn. They are 1-3cm long and ovate to lanceolate or broadly elliptic in shape, finely toothed and prominently veined on the lower surface.
Fruits stain hands, teeth and tongue deep red/purple when eaten, so it was traditionally used as a food and clothes dye.
It has been long used in traditional medicine, particularly in Austria, as a tea or liqueur to 'treat' various disorders. Leaves were used mainly for treating skin disorders.
Bilberry dietary supplements are marketed in the USA but there is little evidence they have any effect. See here and here for short videos on the benefits of bilberries.
In cooking, the fruit is used for pies, tarts and flans, cakes, jams, muffins, cookies, sauces, syrups, juices, and candies.
Although bilberries are in high demand by consumers in Northern Europe, the berries are harvested in the wild without any cultivation. Opportunities may exist to improve the crop if cultivated using common agricultural practices.
They have a high concentration of triterpenes which are being investigated inter alia for possible anti-cancer activity.
