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View Full Version : I'm your huckleberry... Picker...


Idaho45guy
08-02-2021, 09:09 PM
Finally got into the woods today after my favorite huckleberry picking spot has been closed for a month due to a raging forest fire nearby. Fire is mostly contained and we got a bunch of rain the day before. You could not tell. Absolutely bone dry and dusty.

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Only saw one other vehicle in the area and it was a couple of women who were picking to sell them. They said they get $65 a gallon for them.

The huckleberries were perfect! Bushes were bursting with them and they were good-sized and sweet.

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Wayne Smith
08-03-2021, 08:22 AM
We call them high bush blueberries around here - at least mostly the same, I think. I will be putting my 30th quart bag in the freezer today, and starting #31, and we are still picking.
gwpercle
08-03-2021, 09:25 AM
I've never seen a Huckleberry ... Thanks for posting !

I would have simply hit the LIKE button ... but we don't have one !
So now I have to make this dumb post just to say ... LIKE ! ;)
Gary
contender1
08-03-2021, 09:58 AM
Mmmmmm huckleberry shakes! Love them!
kootne
08-03-2021, 11:07 AM
Wife and I have picked about 7 gallons (3 trips) this year. Picking has been "OK". Nothin' like a Huckleberry, once you have a huckleberry pie you will know why blue berries are called "blah berries" in the northern Rockies! That fire that kept you out of the woods this year will bring up about a million morrel mushrooms next spring. If you like mushrooms, you can really pile up the gallons the spring following a burn.
PhilC
08-03-2021, 11:16 AM
Huckleberry pancakes, waffles, muffins - mmm, mmm.
gwpercle
08-03-2021, 05:58 PM
They look like blueberries ... what do they taste like ?
I've never seen them in Louisiana ... we have something called Elderberries but no Huckleberries .
Gary
shtur
08-04-2021, 12:21 PM
My wife and I have been picking along the east side of the Bitterroot Mtns. Our small terrier dog will eat them off the bush when we're out picking.
Idaho45guy
08-04-2021, 04:03 PM
They look like blueberries ... what do they taste like ?


I've heard them described as a sweeter and more flavorful blueberry. Blueberries are somewhat bland compared to them. They are also extremely picky as to where they will grow. Has to be at a very specific elevation and soil type. People are always digging up bushes and bringing them into town to try and grow them and it never works.
Piedmont
08-04-2021, 08:42 PM
Huckleberries and blueberries are different. I've only had huckleberries once or twice years ago, blueberries many times over the years. I wouldn't say either was better than the other, but they are different.
abunaitoo
08-06-2021, 03:53 AM
Never had it.
Must be good.
We have something called a Ohelo berry.
Grows way up high in the mountain on Maui.
Hard to come by.
Never had that on too.
Never had a lots of things.
quilbilly
08-07-2021, 04:11 PM
Our favorites are the high elevation (near timberline) huckleberries in the Cascades. There are both the high bush and the ground hugging huckleberries up there. The low growers are our preferred. Some very special years in among the low growers are the huge big king bolete mushrooms (some nearly 2#) arguably the best tasting in the world. On one of those special years we stuffed the dressed blue grouse we got the same day with the berries, wrapped them in tin foil to put them in the camp fire then sautéed slabs of boletes. Kings don't eat that good! We bring a bottle of white wine now just in case it happens again. It is almost that time of year in the Cascades.
Idaho45guy
08-07-2021, 07:45 PM
Our favorites are the high elevation (near timberline) huckleberries in the Cascades. There are both the high bush and the ground hugging huckleberries up there. The low growers are our preferred. Some very special years in among the low growers are the huge big king bolete mushrooms (some nearly 2#) arguably the best tasting in the world. On one of those special years we stuffed the dressed blue grouse we got the same day with the berries, wrapped them in tin foil to put them in the camp fire then sautéed slabs of boletes. Kings don't eat that good! We bring a bottle of white wine now just in case it happens again. It is almost that time of year in the Cascades.

Amen!
shtur
08-08-2021, 01:24 AM
Older mushroom books state that king Bolete's were the food of nobility. That is why the common person in Europe loves the Bolete's, they're eating what the Kings and other Nobility would eat during mushroom season.
Idaho45guy
08-08-2021, 02:39 AM
Older mushroom books state that king Bolete's were the food of nobility. That is why the common person in Europe loves the Bolete's, they're eating what the Kings and other Nobility would eat during mushroom season.

Never tried those. Love morels, but this year was a bad year for them around here.
kootne
08-08-2021, 09:33 AM
2nd Daughter, SIL, and the 2 grandblessings showed up from Walla-Walla for a couple days. We picked hucks early in the day and kayaked in the afternoon. First cool day in a long time and NO smoke in the air. Wonderful time was had by all. The hucks were not super abundant where we were but nice size.
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Daughter Katie & Grand-daughter Elsa. Many of those hucks were over 1/2"