Huckleberry pickin' time!

Jesse and I spent the last two days out in the woods scavenging for our supply of huckleberries. Huckleberries are a tiny little berry (smaller than a blueberry, but closely related) that grow on the steep slopes of Idaho mountains. There is only about a 1-2 week window of time each year when they are ripe, so you have to know when to go, where to go, and how to get around the crowds of huckleberry hunters. We went up a place called Kelly's Canyon and that is all the direction you will get! We found some great patches of berries so I cant get to specific on the location, ha ha. Picking huckleberries is a very time-consuming job where you just find a patch, sit down in it, and start picking. After picking for myself, I understand why they are so expensive to buy. A gallon size ziplock bag of huckleberries would cost you around $50. Jesse and I finished with a grand total of about 3 gallons. But there is no way we are selling them! They went straight into the freezer and soon I will start making jam. They are also really good in pies, milshakes, and lots of other things. They have a very unique taste that is hard to describe, and it might take some getting used to at first, but once you have the accquired taste, you realize that huckleberries really are priceless!

Day 1: We found a pretty good patch...and we are safe from the bears if you notice Jesse's gun! No, we didn't actually see any, but we were in prime bear country picking their berries...better safe than sorry!

This is what our hands looked like all day

Thanks to the really wet spring, these huckleberries are a bit bigger than they normally are!

Part of the load from day one, washed and ready for the freezer!

The motherload patch we found on day 2! We were very very lucky to find a patch of bushes with this many berries!

Yummy!