For the Love of Huckleberries

On Saturday my family and I were invited to come along with some friends from work to pick Huckleberries. This is considered a great honor, especially since we’ve only lived in Idaho for a little over two weeks.  Usually it takes years before locals will show you where to find Huckleberries.

It’s a known fact ’round these parts that huckleberries are like gold.

Seriously.  They fetch a pretty penny!

Huckleberries aren’t exactly easy to find either.  We followed my friend, Robert (from work) and his wife, Katrina about 35 miles out of town…another 5 or 6 miles twisting a turning through gravel roads, then another 2 mile hike up the side of a mountain.  After that we weaved our way through bushes and picked huckleberries until our fingers turned purple.  Our fingers literally turned purple (from the huckleberry juice).

The photo above was the last photo I took before I slipped, fell and broke my fancy camera. Don’t go worrying about me…I’m fine (besides a big bruise on my knee and shin) but my camera…Oh, that sweet photo taking machine, has perished.  I almost cried. Not because the fall hurt (which it did) but because my camera bit the dust.  And I was a little embarrassed.

For now, I’m using my trusty old point and shoot (should have brought it on the hike instead…coulda, woulda, shoulda).

We did have a terrific time on our huckleberry hike!  We ended up with purple fingers and loads of huckleberries.

I washed the huckleberries, let them dry and then froze about fifteen zip lock bags full of them.

Yum!

We’ve already made huckleberry pancakes and huckleberry muffins.  I’m thinking about making some jam too.

We’ll see.  It is only Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday!