Just picked up a bottle of huckleberry-flavored vodka.
I think I'm in Heaven...
= new reply since forum marked as read
Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) growis as an understory is common in lower elevation local Douglas-fir forests.
Sometimes the shrubs are manicured and sprays cut for floral greens.
They make great pies but are difficult to pick as the berries are small. But there is a picking trick. First one must know where there are abundant amounts of the shrubs that get filtered light so as to maximize berry production. It helps if the terrain is not too steep or otherwise difficult to traverse.
Rather than pick individual berries one takes a large bucket and strips berries and some leaves and twigs into the bucket. The ripe berries (in the Fall) are loose and leaves are not so one is not getting an overabundance of leaves but one does get small not yet ripe berries.
At home one has a correct sized wire screen and a fan. The berries and leaves are repeatedly poured down an inclined shoot made of the wire screen with the fan blowing from underneath. The leaves are mostly blown away as are twigs and the small green berries fall through the mesh. The result still needs to be hand cleaned but it is not so involved. The berries are then mixed with some sugar, placed in plastic bags, and then frozen until use. I have the wire mesh and fan used for this in my shed.
The pie filling is easy. Add lots of sugar, a spot of cinnamon, some lemon juice, and a tad of corn starch. The huckleberries are flavorful but need lots of sugar to sweeten. The huckleberries can be mixed with other fruit in pie such as rhubarb (yum), apple, apricot, or peach. Someone who has been eating huckleberry pie may have their tongue dyed purple and the huckleberries will stain one's clothes so be careful.
Again locally, there are many bears and during the Fall when huckleberries are ripe bear poop composed almost entirely of huckleberries. I once had a beagle dog, Daphne, that I used to take to work in my 20s (worked as a forester) that loved to eat the huckleberries. The white on Daphne's muzzle would turn purple during that time of year if we were working in the huckleberry zones.
Huckleberries have much more flavor than blueberries but are not as sweet and are not a berry to eat without preparation as sour and much more roughage.
Dried huckleberries are a component of the pemmican used by the local Native American Tribes. I am located in the western Klamath Mountains on the north coast of California.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican
