טשערניצעס

tshernitses = bilberries

BILBERRY (European blueberry) - VACCINIUM MYRTILLUS

The Bilberry, whose Latin binomial is Vaccinium myrtillus, enjoys many names in English including whortleberry and black whortles, according to Maude Grieve in her classic text, A Modern Herbal. The most common way we refer to this berry in the US is as the “European Blueberry.” In Yiddish, Bilberries are known as טשערניצעס or tshernitses a term that originates from the slavic and refers to the ripe berries’ black color.

Native to almost every country in Europe, the Bilberry shrub prefers heaths, boggy areas, meadows, forests (where the plants grow at the foot of pine or spruce trees), or parkland areas and will produce berries between July to September that are slightly smaller, tarter and darker, than their American cousins. The fruits are also known to leave deep blue or purple stains on hands, teeth and tongue when eaten and for this reason have been traditionally used as a dye for food and clothing in some regions.

It’s not uncommon to come across a mention of berry picking in the yizkor memory books. Many stories describe happy outings amidst lush, beautiful surroundings. It’s less common to stumble on the names of fruits that were specifically sought during these festive times, but when a berry is identified by name, it’s almost as if you’ve discovered a secret clutch of them yourself. For example, in the shtetl of Troskunai, about 75 miles north of Vilnius, (present day Troškūnai, Lithuania), the author describes the following scene:

“The shtetele was like an island surrounded not by the sea but by broad fields and a thick ancient forest. All kinds of beautiful trees grew in the forest—pine, fir, birch, alder, aspen, ash, and oak—and many kinds of mushrooms and berries: blueberries, bog blueberries, raspberries, and red bilberries”.

About 600 miles to the south and east of Troskunai, in the exclusively Jewish shtetl of Zofyuvka (Yiddish for Sofievka the original name for the town; present day Trochenbrod, Ukraine) another survivor remembered his village and the plants that flourished there:

“Many things grew wild: wild blue berries, huckleberries, red currants, black currants apples and pears. After a rain the mushrooms would rise like yeast-filled dough. Jam made out of the blueberries and huckleberries was eaten on bread. We would know immediately when the children had eaten this jam, for their lips would be colored and their teeth would be blue. What we couldn't eat, we would dry. We also used to dry the pears and had enough for dessert for the whole winter.” It was common to dry the fruits for concocting medicines during times of the year when fresh berries weren’t available.

This same author remembered the details of an afternoon: “Riding over my father's fields we met some children who were coming from the forest with blueberries. “There are your sister's children,” said Shmuelik, pointing to the children. He stopped the cart and we took the children up and kissed them repeatedly.

We were no sooner up than the hot tea, which was taken out of the stove, was on the table. Then the whole family would go out for a walk around the fields and gardens to see and take pleasure in the way all was sprouting, growing, and blooming. Only a villager can realize what this means; a townsdweller can never understand it. Many would stroll in the Radzsevil forest. The children would pick the wild berries with their mouths for, on the Sabbath, it was forbidden to pick by hand. After the walk the men would go to the synagogue for the afternoon prayers (“mincha”) and would return home to “shalosh seudes”, “the third meal”, a good “borsht” whipped with cream, and again the singing of the “zmires” would resound throughout the townlet. After evening prayers (“maariv”) we made “havdala” (ritual prayer differentiating between a holiday and a weekday). The women would then go off to the cowstalls to milk the cows and churn the butter, as it had to be ready for dispatch to Lutzk early on Sunday morning”.

Another author, H. Rabin, from the town of Voronova (present day Voranava, Belarus ), about 40 miles south of Vilnius, Lithuania, remembered this poem that links berry picking eternally with happier times:

Trubbe tunnel, Bezmuk in a foreign language

I remember you from long ago [for the ages]

Your cold water flowed in silence

Gave life and quenched the wilderness

On Sabbath, hold, and festival [as we do]

We would walk to you

We would swim and float in your waters,

Our youthful delight we brought with us

The echo of laughing youths

Was carried between your shade-providing woods

We would collect a fistful of berries

Wild grapes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries

As dessert to the joys of immersion

While happy, silly gleeful with delightful relaxation.

Evenings would then continue until midnight, with gleeful songs and sleeping in the barn on piles of fragrant hay. Those were days of forgetting school and other troubles.

Even the recipe for the well-known bitter, Riga Black Balsam, originally concocted as a medicinal in the 18th century by the Latvian pharmacist Abraham Kunze, contained the humble bilberry.

Today this fruit is still valued for its healing properties in Eastern Europe, especially Poland where a ministerial regulation only allows the wild berries to be harvested by hand as opposed to using tools or devices that could destroy or damage the forest plants. For medicinal purposes, ripe but not overripe fruits are sought and then dried in the sun or an oven, while leaves are collected in May during the plant's flowering period taking care they are green and are dried in a shaded and well-ventilated place or in an oven. Both traditional healers and also more scientific practitioners recognize the many applications this plant can have in restoring and maintaining health. According to the Polish wikipedia pages, for example, Polish healers find the fresh berries have a relaxing effect on constipation and simultaneously act as an antidiarrheal. They describe this latter effect as due to the presence of pectin. Tannins contained in fruits tone and tighten the intestinal mucosa and can destroy pathogenic microorganisms, while anthocyanins bind bacterial toxins and other harmful compounds in the digestive tract, hindering their absorption. They also contain antibacterial properties, for example, against Salmonella and Staphylococcus. Contemporary studies indicate that the berries prevent the formation of cancers and inhibit their development (especially in the case of colon cancer), which is associated with their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, regulating cancer cell growth and killing cancer cells. Anthocyanins are responsible for relaxing blood vessels and have a therapeutic effect on microcirculation disorders, including for vision related disorders. Preclinical studies also confirm antithrombocyte activity. Harkening back to earlier times, dried fruits were formerly used as an antihelminthic agent, probably in children’s health.

Berry picking, as it has been for centuries in the Pale, continues to be a joyful summer activity in Eastern Europe with its own enduring associated folk stories and traditions.