Whortleberries

Whortleberry is the local Somerset name for the wild bilberry that grows on Exmoor. This humble fruit goes by many different names, such as; bilberry, blueberry, heidelberry, huckleberry, hurtleberry & wimberry to mention but a few.

Whortleberry growing near Dunkery Gate

Locally they are known as 'Worts' or 'Urts'. Whortleberries are one of the twelve main specis of vegetaion on Exmoor. It is a meber of the Ericaceae family. Whotleberry palnts prefer lean acid soil often growing in patches. They can be found colonising the dry stone walls of Fyldon Common. In April the flowering Whortleberry offers one of the earliest flowers for bees gathering nectar. The fruit season starts in July. The berries can taste very different depending on when and where they have been picked. Their falvour can be described variously as piquant, delicate, refreshing, tart, balnd and sweet. The juice is very prone to stain anything it comes into contact with and the Ancient Britains used it as a face dye. Picking the berries was once a nmajor industry for Exmoor. There were packing sheds in Porlock and up to a ton a day of berries was sent from Minehead Railway station to Manchester and Birmingham. Another local name for them is 'hurts' Whortleberries grow wild in northern Europe and are usually found found during the months of July and August. Whortleberries are now more difficult to find largely to the increase in fern & bracken. They like poor acid soil and inaccessible places. Whortleberry can be found on Porlock Hill, North Hill and Dunkery Beacon , Horner and at County Gate Sheep have a strong liking for this delicacy.

Whortleberryjam made on the Brendon Hills

The whortleberry [myrtillus vaccinium], acquired its name according to a Greek legend. Myrtillus, son of Hermes paid the penalty of double-dealing by being thrown into the sea. His body was washed ashore and Hermes changed it into a whortleberry bush in memory of the unlucky youth.

Some intering facts:

• Whortleberries are rich in vitamins C and D
• Used widely in Europe for the treatment of a variety of ocular disorders
• Believed by some European surgeons to enhance the healing of wounds after surgery
• Used by herbalists to treat & prevent bruising, varicose veins and a variety of vascular disorders
• In 1997, bilberry products were among the top 20 for herb sales in the US
• During World War II, the berries became popular among Royal Air Force pilots, who claimed eating Whortleberry jam prior to night bombing raids improved their vision

Whortleberries

Whortleberry one of the twelve main species of vegetation on Exmoora lthough its appearance is unexceptional. A member of the Ericaceae familyand grows at a level below easy notice. When close-cropped by sheep it can form a mat-like sward; but given the shelter of an ancient oakwood, as in the valley of Horner Water it will form unexpected thickets able to hide a resting deer. It prospers on lean, acid soil, growing in pockets and patches, colonising the dry-stone walls. Just prior to leaf-fall nutrients are passed to the underground stems, or rhizomes, by which the whortleberry expands its boundaries. Autumn and spring are the seasons of growth, when a plant may creep outward, annually, by as much as sixteen inches (40cm). The individual plant wearies and dies, but the community of the whortleberry, the growing grounds, the 'wort hills' known from long tradition to generations of berry-pickers, are part of the fabric of the ageless moor.

In Spring whortleberries provide for the newly hatched caterpillars of the Bilberry Pug. More than a score of moth and butterfly caterpillars find the foliage palatable. Later than the Pug, the larvae of the Emperor Moth feed from May to August; those of the Little Emerald, from August to September. The Fox Moth lays her batch of eggs in June, and as summer drifts towards autumn, the mature caterpillar may be seen, moving at a slow rippling walk across the cropped turf by the road down from Brimblecombe Hill, or sunning itself among the heather. The fruit season starts in July with the first colouring of the heather, and loses momentum after August, although in some years. No two berries taste the same. Their flavour has been variously described as piquant, delicate, refreshing, tart, bland and sweet. Nor is there agreement as to colour. The berry may appear black, with highlights like a crow's wing, or a well-polished boot. With the bloom upon it left untouched, it can look smoky, thunder-grey, or as Shakespeare described it in The Merry Wives of Windsor, livid as a bruise.' William Coles, in 1657, wrote of what Culpeper had earlier observed, that the juice 'giveth a purplish colour to the hands and lips of them that handle and eat them'. Whortleberry-pickers have been well aware, all down the centuries, of the propensity of the rich juice to stain what it touches - sit down among bushes of ripe worts and you will be a different colour when you rise. The Ancient Britons used it, deliberately, to dye their faces. William Holland, parson at Overstowey, wrote in his diary on 25 July, 1813: 'In the afternoon I went into the Sunday School and found few there, they were gone, I suppose, to Ely Green to the Revel for it is Whort Sunday as they call it for on this day the Parishioners see their friends and give them Whortleberry Pies so that they come to Church with black mouths.' His vexation at such absenteeism finds an echo down the years. The terse entry in the Leighland School Logbook for 11 July 1900, reads: 'The whortleberry plague has begun.'

The days when wort picking across the parishes of Exmoor was a summer industry are gone, but not forgotten. The Burge family would walk from Culverwell Cottage, Rodhuish, to Slowley Wood to pick worts, for clothes for the family.
Mr Kenneth Westcott can well remember working from first thing in the morning, down at the Porlock packing sheds. 'Sometimes we'd be all day packing them, depending on the weather — no good if it was wet. They went for human consumption. I've heard they were used for dyes, but ours weren't. We sent them to Birmingham and Manchester. During the season, in the school holidays, we'd send a ton a day from Minehead Station. They used to stop the train for us and we'd drive right onto the platform, and load them straight into the carriage.

'There was so much difference in the pickers. Margery Sage, from Broom-street Farm could pick a basket of hurts ('hurts' we called the berries) with not a leaf among them. They'd have the bloom still on them, they'd be that perfect. Then there'd be others, and half the basket would be leaves. We'd get the electric fan on to blow them out. Some bright spark thought of a picking instrument with wire prongs, proper mess that made. Pickers would come to us, and sometimes we'd go and collect. Right up to about a twelve-month ago, there was a sign on the wall in my mother's writing, 'Whortleberries taken from six o'clock in the evening.' Many a child has been clad and shod down the centuries, thanks to friend whortleberry. But although the crop is free, it can be tiresome to gather. Patience and staying power are required to fill a wicker basket. Covering the base is the test, thereafter the layers creep visibly up the sides. As with milking a cow, the bush yields best to steady careful hands, and diligence wins over haste. If a container is overturned, it is often quicker to pick more of the little somethings than to try and rescue the spillage.

The harvest is at its prime when flies are at their most energetic, and a brake-fern switch will waft them from the face, only for a cloud to be back within seconds. Close, thundery weather brings that greater affront — the female cleg-fly who will alight silently on bare skin, thirsting for blood. The worst hazard of all, perhaps, is to encounter an adder. Whortleberry grounds are often peppered with ant-hills, upon which the viper likes to warm his coils, and from which he can vanish with a faint, dry rustle, into the network of tunnels and passageways that lie between the whortleberry stems, under the covering roof of leaves. There is an old rhyme: 'Milk, crame and 'urts say the bells of Stoke Church...' It has escaped cultivation - it is Vaccinium corymbosum, the larger-fruited American species, that is grown commercially.

When you think of Exmoor you do not tend to think of fruit. Well maybe a few Apples, Pears, Blackberries and Raspberries but Sharcott farm of Exford grows something a little less common to the south west. The owners started a Blueberry plantation on their Exmoor farm a few years back to grow the plants up to a size which could yield a good crop. After years of unsuccessful crops this years has turned out to be a winner but the company who had agreed to buy the majority have now pulled out due to financial issues related to the economic climate. This years crop far surpasses the remaining orders so Sharcott are relying on local trade and business for the help they need. Blueberries are thought to be one of the oldest branches of the fruiting family tree. Their origins can be found in Asia, Europe, and North and South America indicating that they were around when the countries were joined as one land mass. The Blueberry belongs to the Vaccinium family and is related to other medicinally beneficial plants such as Cranberries, Bilberries and Huckleberries. Their culinary use dates back a long time with records of Native Americans using every part of the plant including leaves for tea and juice for a dye. The plants are divided into low growing and high growing bushes. The berry is round with a crown like frill and blue to purple in colour. The farm is fortunate enough to have the soil type that Blueberries favour, this is an acid soil and they are not very tolerant of anything but this. It takes a good few years to grow the bushes into plants that will yield a worthy crop.

Blueberries have been the subject of numerous studies in recent years. They have been named as the plant with the highest levels of anti oxidants. These studies have shown and continue to show vital scientific discoveries into this wonderful berries potential as a healer. Studies have shown links into its capabilities of fighting ovarian cancer as well neurological disorders. The berries have also made their way into the world of animal treatment showing that they help their brains recover after knocks to the head. Blueberries are not an easy crop to grow and it is obvious that the owners of Sharcott Farm at Exford are not just in it for the money but a love of an amazing plant that can only offer good to the community. The Blueberry is also not a common fruit in the south west so the people deserve the beneficial properties of this amazing fruit. In times like these local communities need to pull together and think of the larger picture. The larger picture being fresh, nutritious and locally grown food. It makes absolute sense to avoid buying Blueberries from Europe or Asia and support your local fruit farmers in their time of need.

Contributed by: Fiona Furguson, Sue Evans