Blueberries.

In my email inbox in Sep96:

"As one 'merican to an 'ropean, 'dinavian or 'landiner, what are you guys using those "whortleberries" for? Other than food source, any anecdotal reports or references to the literature regarding medicinal use would be greatly appreciated."

Let's see.

The latin for what I call blueberry (blåbär in Swedish, Blaubeere in German, mustikka in Finnish) is Vaccinium myrtillus.

As there is an abundance of the plant over here we've found out a lot of different ways to use them; I'll just list some of the most prominent:

• Blueberries, dried: for diarrhoea
• Blueberries, fresh: for constipation, for gas problems, for bleeding haemorrhoids.
• Blueberry wine: for bad diarrhoea, for chronical problems of the upper gastro-intestinal tract.
• Blueberries, cooked: like blueberry wine. Add cinnamon and cloves to the mush ;)
• Blueberry juice: gargle for inflammations in mouth and throat. Stronger effect if you swallow as late as possible. Nightsight improvement, relieves overtaxed eyes.
• Blueberry leaves: use as Arctostaphylos leaves, but they are milder in their actions.

... if you pick and eat the berries on midsummer day you won't have any bellyaches that year, nor will you have a fever. I'd try it, but they aren't ripe over here, on midsummer day, so if I would decide to eat them I'd have a bellyache right away, from the unripe berries. Sounds like a self-defeating prophecy to me.

- Henriette