Anyone managed to buy bilberries?

[IHeartKingThistle]

I am very excited to have finally figured out what the amazing pudding my Polish friend's mum fed me years ago was - pierogi.

Have also figured out that they must have been filled with bilberries not blueberries - I dislike the blandness of blueberries and these had much more flavour.

I really want to try making some myself but can't find bilberries anywhere! Anyone managed to buy any anywhere?

No but if you don't manage to find any, wait till next summer and go foraging - it's so much fun.

Ooh foraging! Sadly we're in Surrey which I don't believe is bilberry heartland!

You may have to plan your summer holiday around it and go to a likely bilberry place in the bilberry season.

I was kind of hoping someone would tell me they sell them in Lidl!

If we keep it bumped for long enough someone might!
What about those Polish shops that are springing up where all the new immigrants are? Have you got one near you?

An immigrant?

Sorry, couldn't resist!

There might be - might take DS on a Polish grocers hunt tomorrow. 3 year olds like doing that, right?

Same as winberries. I don't think I have ever bought them, but I have picked them on our local moorland.

And winberry pie is lush.

It's a bit messed up, isn't it, that bilberries are an indigenous fruit, blueberries have to be imported, and yet it's much easier to get blueberries?

Yes, but not as messed up as when you can't get English apples in our local Sainsbury in the English apple season! Madness.

But winberries are not particularly abundant and are not grown commercially (she said knowingly ) and are probably pretty labour intensive to pick and are very seasonal (ie September).

Someone may come along and say this is all bollocks and they have a winberry farm.

Do you know how many varieties if English apples there are? Hundreds.

I never knew that Gala apples are grown in the UK. I am sure I have only ever eaten either South African or French ones.

Bollocks.

I have a winberry farm.

I've never heard of a winberry before this thread.

The blueberries in Polish pierogi are the berries indigenous to Poland.

You need to look out for Blueberries from France and Poland, to get the strong flavour and the purple coloured flesh.

The most common varieties are imported from Chile, and they are green inside and taste quite horrible.

I know my blueberries, I am Norwegian (and my husband is Polish) and spent my entire childhood foraging for blueberries with my parents. Ours taste the same as the polish ones. Basically, rule of thumb, if the berries are from EAST of the UK they are good, if from the WEST of the uk (ie chile) they are green inside (mostly)

You might be able to find frozen blueberry (but also strawberry) Pierogi from your local Polish deli.

I cannot remember the Canadian varieties, whether they are green-fleshed and foul or purple and yummy.

Where, where, where?

Send me pies, now.

Please.

To be fair, the thread was about bilberries, but they are the same thing.

Excellent- I knew MN would have a blueberry expert! Eastern berries it is.

They are abundant on the moors around south west Sheffield/North Derbyshire. I think you can get blueberries in syrup in the polish section of bigger Tesco shops - sometimes Lidl. Even our local green grocer has them (bottled by Krakus, I think).
Lots in Snowdonia, too, so as someone above said - plan your next year's summer holiday around this! (and bear in mind they take an eternity to pick).

Are blueberries and winberries/bilberries the same thing then?

In response to the queries regarding bilberries, I live in Bingley, West Yorks and am currently picking wild bilberries. When these are no longer available I buy jars of bilberries in syrup from my local Polish shop in Shipley. they are labelled.
ROLNIK (manufacturers name)
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JAGODY
W SYROPI
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These are genuine bilberries, identical to the ones I pick on local moorland.

Justingredients.co.UK supplies them