Bilberry Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), the European blueberry or whortleberry, is a low deciduous shrub of the heath family, Ericaceae, native to heaths, moors, and acid woodland across northern and central Europe, the Caucasus, and northern Asia, and into the mountains of the Mediterranean. It grows 20 to 60 centimeters with green, sharply angled twigs, small, finely toothed oval leaves that turn red in autumn, and solitary pink-tinged, globular flowers in spring. The berries ripen singly in midsummer, blue-black with a waxy bloom and about a centimeter across; unlike cultivated blueberries, their flesh and juice are deep purple and stain fingers and mouth. We extract the dried berry and leaf separately.