Huckleberries are my favorite! I also love that they’re the pacific northwest’s own little treasure. Since my family has had a cabin in the Blue Mountains, we enjoy spending the spring foraging morels and the summer picking some huckleberries.

I am so passionate about how the Earth provides for us! How wonderful that all the best and most delicious things in life come free to us and allow us to spend time in nature!

I understand that beginning foraging can be hard. There’s so much to learn and you have to know the right places to go. From my experiences, I’ll give you a few tips/tricks I’ve learned.

1. Research your neck of the woods. Where my family likes to pick, huckleberries are the best pickin’ mid-August. However, depending on where you pick, the best pickin’ could be anywhere between late-June and early-October. Do you research or ask around to learn where you want to pick.
2. Know before you go. You know, so you don’t die. There’s lots of edible stuff out there, but there’s also a lot of plants that can kill you. You have to know what a huckleberry bush and ripe huckleberries look like. It’s crazy how they grow, too! They can be a foot tall or three feet tall, where we pick! It’s also important to note that not ripe berries are green, growing berries are more of a red color and ripe berries are purple or blue and resemble smaller blueberries (see right).
3. Go armed. In the neck of the woods that we pick, bears are THRIVING. Ironically, they weren’t during the fall bear season last year, but that’s how it always works, right? Bears love berries. You don’t want to come across a bear or (worse) have a bear stumble across you in the patch. It’s never happened to us, but if it were to, it’s better to be safe, rather than sorry! We always bring along a pistol or rifle, just to be safe.
4. Get off the road. Everyone just pulls off the side of the road and picks. If you want better luck, get off the main roads/trails. Our little huckleberry heaven that is just flourishing–which Grandpa calls “Huckleberry Lane”–is probably only 50 yards off the main road, but no one thinks to get off of it!
5. Test the elevation. If you aren’t having much luck where you’re at, you have to test the elevation. Depending on the time in the season, the berries will grow better at different elevations. Try going up or down in elevation to find what is working best at the current time.
6. Never reveal your lucky spot. Now, I told you what my Grandpa calls his lucky spot, but I will never reveal where it is. Huckleberries tend to come back year after year in the same place. If you want to keep your lucky spot, you better keep it a secret!
7. Bonus: Tools! A couple of years ago, we got my grandparents an awesome berry picker. Turns out, it works a lot better than individually picking! You will have to pick out some not ripe berries and some leaves, but it definitely saves time! We also love a berry pick seat, which you can make yourself with a bucket and toilet seat. It saves your back the strain!

Stay tuned for my family’s favorite huckleberry recipe.

Happy pickin’!

-Kylee