Its not every day we introduce a new flavour of jam, but let the bells ring out across the nation - Bilberry Jam has arrived on the Wild Side shelves!

Now I probably need to offer some explanation about these berries, which are also referred to as Blaeberries, Whortleberries, Whinberries, Windberries and Myrtle Berries. These tiny little berries can be found on open uplands across the country, which accounts for the diversity of names given to them, and have a delicious flavour which means they make a fantastic jam. 

So, if they are so widely available, why dont you see Bilberries for sale either as fruit or in jam?

Well, the problem lies in their size, or to be more accurate, their lack of it. These fruit are tiny, maybe 5mm across and grow on ankle height bushes with single individual berries sprouting out here and there. All of this adds up to one massive back ache when trying to forage for them in any significant quantities.

We did try gathering some years ago on the aptly named Bilberry Hill near Bromsgrove, but an hour of back breaking work yeilded enough fruit for maybe two jars. The end result was amazing - jam like you have never tasted before, but the effort involved meant the flavour was committed to the "never again" file.

Well, that all changed when we were approached by a professional forager who has devised a way to harvest these tiny orbs of loveliness from the hills of Shropshire. He had 10kg of Bilberries available and would we like them? Is the Pope Catholic.... of course we would like them!

The snag, and you know what is coming next, is the cost. These little flavour bombs come hard won and that, as they say, is reflected in the price. Gram for gram these berries are waaaaay more expensive than any ingredient we have ever bought in the past, but we just couldnt pass up the opportunity to add Bilberry Jam to our offering. So, we now have a modest stock of the elusive Bilberry Jam for sale and rather than price these jars separately, we are selling them for our usual £4.00 a jar, but not including them in our 3 for £11 offer - we think that that sounds fair?

So, as Fats Domino used to sing, "I found my thrill on Bilberry Hill" (but without the back ache)!