Our camping plans were foiled this past weekend by overcast skies, and unusually cool temperatures. But as I'm sure you all guessed, we couldn't just sit around the house for an entire day, much less an entire weekend! :) We joined some friends on Saturday and headed back to St. Joe's National Forest near Potlatch, Idaho to search for wild huckleberries. I had never tried a huckleberry, and didn't even know what they looked like until this weekend. We heard it through the grapevine (no pun intended) that there was a giant patch of wild huckleberries right off of a forest service road that were abundant and free for the picking. That was certainly no understatement! An entire hillside was covered in small bushes that were loaded with the tiny reddish-blue berries. Not knowing the size of a huckleberry, I was a little too ambitious and brought along a dozen gallon ziploc bags. Little did I know that it would take a week worth of picking to fill that many bags!
Greg and I put all of our berries in an old gallon ice-cream bucket, and ended up filling it a little more than halfway after probably 1.5-2 hours worth of picking. There were also quite a few raspberry vines along the road, but those seemed to be a little past their prime. Sunday afternoon we washed our berries, then made a turn of jelly, and a batch of Huckleberry Sour Cream muffins. We still have quite a few berries left, so after we sample the jelly, we may make another batch. Here are the pictures.
The view. This is off the left side of the forest road, the berry patch was on the right side.
The colorful little berries. Unfortunately, these berries have to be picked one at a time.
See how tiny they are! I can't tell you how many I dropped!
After about 30 minutes of picking.
Can you spot the little brown dog in the picture above?? She's in camoflauge.
She was on bear patrol! This would've been the perfect lunch spot for bears. Two little dogs for appetizers, slow-moving humans for lunch, and a nice selection of berries for dessert!!
Dixie did her usual...looked for the perfect spot to park while she waited.
A scooby-snack for a hungry bear! :)
Greg had a pretty efficient system going. He hooked the ice cream bucket to his belt so that he could pick with both hands.
It's really small, but here's a panoramic of the view, and Greg with a few raspberries.
The vibrant "fruits" of our labor.
Crushing berries to make jelly.
Straining out some of the seeds.
Sour Cream Huckleberry muffins. Anyone getting hungry yet??As a side note, many farmers on the Palouse are starting to harvest their wheat. These pictures are from the highway, but we'll try to get some better ones before the wheat is all gone.
And finally, a big congratulations to Hannah and Randall on their engagement!! Can't wait for July 2010!
2 comments:
Boy I tell ya!! Hate to be starving to death and have to rely on huckleberries to survive! They are so little! Haven't talked to ya for a while so thought I would drop a line or two. We have begun construction on Tim's Man Cave in the basement. Hope to have it finished by the end of September. We still need electrical run and carpet laid but everything else is pretty much done. Need some furniture but probably will settle for a futon or something like that. Been making crafts to sell at the shop and soccer practice begins this week. Our softball season was crappy. We had a 3-7 streak that just killed us. Oh well. Better luck next year!!! Will send pics of the "man cave" when I get them downloaded. Talk to ya later taters!!! Give Dixie a kiss for us.
Strange to see anybody in long sleeves. It's been pretty hot even though we've had a lot of rain. When I was little many,many years ago, the neighbor had blueberries. They look a lot like the huckleberries. If you keep at it you will be able to survive the wild. Just don't stay away too long. I know Trent has talked to Greg about the search for a car. Still searching. The job issue is still a little ify. I don't know how to spell that. Anyway, things have been steady at the store,not explosive but steady. I told John I'm really tired of working Saturday's. I think I'm just in a rut. Well,I was glad to see weiner dog again. Dixie looks very at home in the weeds. I still have her old pillow at the front door waiting for her. We love you all and miss you every day. Take care of each other,hugs and kisses.
Love,
M&J
Post a Comment