To tell that bilberry is useful means not to tell anything. It is the real storeroom of minerals and vitamins, with success it is applied not only in cookery, but also in medicine. Bilberry will help at indigestions and the sight will improve. If you at least once in the life picked bilberry manually, then for certain know what is hard work, but this berry is worth it. And if you have to go for the first time to the forest for berry, get acquainted with councils and recommendations.
The bush of bilberry is long-liver who begins to fructify not at once, and only four-five years later. At ten-year age the bush reaches the maturity and fructifies to the maximum. And only by forty years the plant calms down and goes on the deserved vacation. However it is not recommended to pick berry from aged bush which age reaches twenty years. It can turn out so that in bilberry there will be no those useful properties and components which are so important.
To determine the approximate age of bush not so difficult as can seem at first sight. In the first year of life the escapes look as if thin green twigs. Side branches appear only in the next years, respectively, the more the bush of branches, the has more to it years. To determine the age of bilberry, count quantity of year prirostok, since the thinnest branches and finishing with the main trunk.
Berries of bilberry ripen at the end of June, during this period and it is necessary to go to the forest for their collecting. The best time for gathering bilberry – evening or morning. Being going to the forest, do not forget to take means from mosquitoes (spray, cream or aerosol), these blood-sicking insects as well as people, prefer bilberry places. It is desirable to pick berries manually even if you also are owner special berry rake, they cause extensive damage to bush as together with bilberry also leaves are raked up. After that the bush cannot long recover. Think not only of yourself, but also of the surrounding nature, perhaps, you will have nothing to collect next year after such marauding. Put the berries picked manually in small plastic buckets or wicker baskets. At the same time it is not recommended to pour bilberry from one ware into another as the gentle thin skin of berries can be crumpled and will give juice.