Wild berry hunting

A few years ago I was leading a girls club meeting in the summer and we had some time to kill so we were out in the yard playing 'refrigerator tag.' That's kind of a complicated game but suffice to say that it involves yelling out the names of random edibles and running around. So I was it and I yelled out "Huckleberries!" and everyone ran around. Turns out one visiting girl had never eaten a huckleberry before. This was shocking. She was from Southern California so it was explainable (you have to have a colder climate and mountains or giant hills) but it was still shocking cause the Huckleberry is a staple of the Northwestern American summer experience. It's just hard to imagine a life without Huckleberries. There is nothing quite like a huckleberry.

When describing a huckleberry it is fastest and simplest to say that they are a kind of wild blueberry. Unfortunately this description falls far short of conveying the full mystery, majesty and beauty of a huckleberry. Huckleberries resemble blueberries only in that they are small, round and grow on a bush.
This is a huckleberry bush. There are many varieties of huckleberries. This bush is taller and greener than some; the leaves are perhaps a bit wider than the average bush. Some have leaves with red and yellow splotches. These are usually lower to the ground. In some places you can find bushes that are so big you can pick on one side and a bear can eat on the other and you would never see each other. Okay, that's a tall tale told to me by a Montanan but I guess they can get pretty big in wetter places, like the middle or west side Washington.
The berries themselves are usually a blueberry size or smaller. In color they can be anywhere from red (like an under ripe blueberry) to deep purple or blue that is pretty much black.
You can walk along a path lined with bushes and every third berry you pick will have a different flavor. Some can be very tart, tangy or sweet. Some are closer to a raspberry or an apple even, in taste. I eat one recently that was spicy like cinnamon or something. It tasted like Christmas. They all have a kind of wild mountain tang to them.
The Huckleberry is a highly valued treasure cause they only grow wild. You have to climb into a mountain and go tromping around in the underbrush to find them. You risk the bears who don't want to share them and the bugs who want to eat you and the other underbrush that wants to get in your eyes and up you pant legs and down your socks. It's quite an adventure.
Savor your Huckleberries. They are good on their own but even better when mixed in something. When we go camping we put them in our oatmeal and pancakes. They are the perfect side dish for freshly caught and cooked mountain lake fish. If you get enough to make a pie, this is also to die for. Huckleberries in vanilla ice cream is my favorite. (Don't fall for the Huckleberry flavored ice cream. I don't know how they came up with that but it is all wrong.) The sweetness of the vanilla cuts through any tartness and compliments that mountain tanginess to perfection.
When a good day of Huckleberry picking is through, you can be proud of red and purple stained fingers and even a small bag full of juicy loot.