Every summer most families have their traditions. Reunions, Camping, BBQ's in the backyard, Swimming at Bear Lake, etc. One family tradition that has become almost religious to our family is the great gathering of huckleberries. These tiny, but tasty morsels of goodness are so sweet and juicy; it makes you wonder how you tolerated any other kind of berry beforehand. They are only ripe for picking starting the 2nd week of August and they last about two weeks. During these two weeks, everything else on our family agendas (including school shopping and canning) was put on hold until the freezer was full of quart sized freezer bags of these wonderful things.
The amazing thing about these berries is they are only sweet if they grow in the wild. Many people that I know of have tried to raise them in their gardens and flowerbeds with little to no luck. You can only get the real deal in the wild forests of the Rocky Mountains. Crazy huh?! So if you know what to look for, get your old clothes out (these berries are low to the ground and usually you end up sitting on a few, picking them in their patches) and get ready to have your fingers stained red/purple. Not to worry, stained fingers are the marks of a dedicated berry picker! These berries go great on ice cream, by themselves, or in lavish deserts such as cheesecakes, jams, and my favorite Huckleberry Syrup on homemade pancakes! Here are a couple recipes to help you get started with these delicious things:
Huckleberry – Raspberry Jam
4 cups huckleberries
1 cup raspberry juice **
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 box fruit pectin
4 1/2 cups sugar
Mash huckleberries in pot. Add raspberry juice, lemon juice and pectin and bring to a rollling boil over moderately high heat. Stir constantly. Add sugar all at once and continue to stir until mixture boils again. Boil hard for one minute. Remove from head and skim off foam. Ladle into hot sterilized jars. Process in hot water bath according to the directions on the pectin box.
Makes 7-8 half pints
**To make raspberry juice, crush 6-7 cups of raspberries. Add one cup of water and cook in sauce pan over low to moderate heat until the fruit is soft. Cool to room temperature and strain juice.
This recipe from WildHuckleberry.com
Grandma Sibbett's Huckleberry Syrup
-Cheri Crane
1 Pint of Huckleberries
1 1/2 Cups Water or Juice
3-6 TBSP Cornstarch
1 Cup Sugar
1 or 2 TBSP Lemon Juice (depends on how tart the berries are)
Dash of Salt
Drain any extra juice from berries. Use this as part of the liquid measurement. Pour the sugar into a good-sized saucepan (keeps you from getting splattering later on.) Add liquid and stir. Place over medium heat and stir often until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium high setting to bring to a boil. When it starts boiling, add huckleberries and stir. If it starts to bubble up, turn down the heat to medium setting. Add lemon juice and dash of salt, continue stirring. When it returns to a boil, add cornstarch. (I usually mix it up ahead of time in a small bowl. I'll start with 3 TBSP Cornstarch and add enough water to make a paste. Stir this well, then add to the huckleberry mixture.) If it thickens up to desired consistency, stir well, remove from heat and pour into a gravy pot or pyrex measuring bowl. Serve with hot pancakes or waffles.
You can also turn this into a nice pie filling, simply cook as above, but thicken it up with cornstarch until desired thickness (you're looking for the syrup to look like pudding) Pour huckleberry mix into a pre-cooked pie crust and allow to cool and set up in fridge. Should look like Jell-O.
