Native Berries (Part 1)

In this series we will explore the native berries of the Pacific Northwest.

Here in the Northwest there are many berries to choose from: from the thorn-filled blackberries, to the delicate Salmon Berry, but one berry beats them all to the punch: the Huckleberry. These berries come in two varieties, red and purple (which look oddly like a blueberry). The main difference between them is color. The berries of the purple huckleberries look like this:

Notice the leaves; they are the first indicator of it being in the Huckleberry-Blueberry Family.

Also, since it looks like a blueberry it should be in the family (if other requirements are fulfilled). Red Huckleberries look like this:

This plant was loaded with them.

Since the leaves look similar to the other leaves we can assume they are related. These berries were good tasting, but a bit sour to some. The way to combat this “sourness” is with a good roasting. Assuming you’re out camping or something like that, you can put these on sticks, coat-hangers, and "fancy-metal-jabbing-sticking-implements" like a marshmallow, and stick it in the fire for a good 10 seconds. This allows the sugars to caramelize and give you a good huckleberry experience. Personally, the sour taste of the Huckleberry is appealing, since it becomes sweet after a while, but to each its own.

Since most people have never seen a huckleberry, it is safe to assume you can find them everywhere in their native environment. Therefore these wonderful berries are ripe for the taking in the various parks and woodlands here in the Pacific Northwest. Huckleberry season coincides with Native Blackberry and Salmon Berry season, which is good, because of the different flavors involved. This takes place in the window of about a month, between mid-June through mid-July. This sets up the season of Blackberries and Salal Berries. A bit of facts for the Huckleberry: the huckleberry was an important staple of the Native Peoples (I know that sounded a bit white, but well…) and settlers who picked gallons of them for the commercial canning industry⁽¹⁾. The Northwestern Huckleberries are all part of the Vaccinium Genus ⁽¹⁾. As said before they also have never been cultivated commercially, but it has been tried for the past century (2).

Huckleberries are one of the best tasting berries native to here, but it is a bit challenging to find them. Luckily, in the “urban” landscape of Seattle there is a park where I have seen these berries: Ravenna Park. Though the climb up and down the ravine might be a bit tough for some of us, the rest of us can celebrate the hike by eating, in the summer. Sure enough, the native huckleberries are there, if only in small numbers. Watch out non-native-blackberries, there’s an old berry coming back into style.

1 US. Forest Service

2 Northwest Berry and Grape Network (University of Washington, USDA, University of Idaho, and Oregon Sate University)

Links are also provided in the parenthetical citations. All other information is provided by the writer(s) of this post. Correct us if there are mistakes and we'll cross them out (literally--it's just a simple tag in html).

*Edit:  the nutritional information for the berry can be found here http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7766?fg=American+Indian%2FAlaska+Native+Foods&man=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=25&offset=25&sort=&qlookup=  .