tillamook ice cream mountain huckleberry

I tried another trail the following morning and was able to squeak out enough for the recipe. My fear was that I would have to augment the huckleberries with store-bought blueberries and wind up with bluckleberry ice cream. I managed half of what I needed for a batch of ice cream. Most of the patches were bare, but a few choice locations had some dark purple berries. I had a hunch that the huckleberries were nearing peak a few weeks ago, but I was so busy with out-of-town visitors and work that I didn’t get out to pick any until last week. Wendy described it perfectly, “Huckleberries are what blueberries aspire to be.” It’s so true. Huckleberries have the perfect balance of tartness, sweetness, and a big flavor for such a tiny berry. The first time I tasted a fresh huckleberry, I was blown away by the intensity of it. Of course, as with all things, please don’t go randomly picking berries that you aren’t familiar with and popping them into your mouth. The berries are small here in the Rockies and quite well hidden, especially if you don’t know to look for them. It’s been there this whole time and I never knew they were huckleberry plants! The plants seem to thrive above 9000 feet, but peter out near treeline (somewhere around 10,800 or 11,000 feet). It is EVERYWHERE and I’ve always admired it as a pretty understory on the forested slopes. The plant is a low-growing ground cover over a good portion of our mountains. So when Wendy told me she was going to show me huckleberries last summer, she said, “You’re gonna kick yourself when you realize what they are.” And she was correct. Familiarity with the plants and their various medicinal or culinary uses makes me cherish these mountains even more than I already do. I really love the outdoors, the thrill of the hunt (I tell Wendy that I think porcini hunting would be far more exciting if the mushrooms could run… and scream), and learning the native plants. Truth be told, eating the food is probably the least favorite aspect of foraging for me.

I’m a little bit of a plant geek, although nothing close to Wendy’s level of knowledge and geekdom. Make that THREE of my loves: the backcountry, food, and plants. It was the inevitable marriage of two of my loves: the backcountry and food. Last summer, my friend and expert wild foods forager, Wendy, introduced me to foraging.

Tillamook ice cream mountain huckleberry