GAYLUSSACIA, VARIOUS SPECIES
TERROIR, the capacity for food and drink to convey the tastes and smells of their place of origin, is most noticeable in foodstuffs grown organically. Organic cultivation of any foodstuff is closer to nature than conventional cultivation, resulting in thrifty plants that have every advantage for acquiring some special (and very desirable) characteristic of the local air and soil. On the other hand, the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides disrupts the naturally occurring mix of organisms found at the spot where the plant grows, destroying any native taste of the place, and resulting in a blander, more generic-tasting food.
With huckleberries, we’re invariably dealing with wild plants that are as close to nature as you can get. The berries are small, and, like all wild things, their sweet, tart flavor is less obvious and more complicated, less diluted and more concentrated, than the taste of any of their tame cousins, such as blueberries.
THE ORGANIC FACTOR
Almost all huckleberries are gathered from the wild, so while they’re not organic, they are not likely to have been sprayed.
NUTRITION
Huckleberries supply modest amounts of calcium, but their real nutritional benefit is the great amounts of delphinidin—one of the cancer-fighting anthocyanin antioxidants—they contain. They are even more potent than blueberries in that department.
TYPES
As with a number of fruits that grow wild in the United States, huckleberries can be divided into eastern and western species. The eastern huckleberries, which grow east of the Rockies, are a member of the heath family, which also includes the Vaccinium genus (blueberries, bilberries, lingonberries, and cranberries), but fall under a separate genus, Gaylussacia. The most commonly found species is the black huckleberry, Gaylussacia baccata, with a delicious spicy flavor, a focused sweetness, and some crunchy seeds in the interior. The dwarf huckleberry, Gaylussacia dumosa, and the dark blue berries of Gaylussacia frondosa are less common but just as good to eat.
Western huckleberries, found along the coastal parts of northern California up through the Cascades and east to the Rockies, are really a form of Vaccinium. The most common are Vaccinium membranaceum, a tall woody shrub that produces fruit more abundantly than the Gaylussacias, along with two other species, Vaccinium ovalifolium and Vaccinium deliciosum. While good, these huckleberries don’t have the spiciness of the Gaylussacias. They are ripe toward the end of August and into September.
Huckleberries are rarely (if ever) cultivated and must be gathered from the wild, and again you must harvest them yourself or keep watch for their appearance at roadside stands or perhaps the occasional farmers’ market.
SEASONALITY
July and August for the Eastern huckleberries, late August for the Western type.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Keep an eye peeled for bears, moose, and snakes while you’re tramping around in the woods looking for huckleberries.
Eastern huckleberries are pretty woody shrubs, growing about 3 feet high. The Western types can grow to 8 feet or a little higher or lower. The bushes never seem to make large patches but rather appear in small groups here and there in open woodlands. Each bush produces a handful of huckleberries at most at any one time, so picking a lot of them involves some time searching and more time picking.
STORAGE AND PREPARATION
Huckle-berries are so delicious you probably will eat them the day you pick them.
USES
These sweet-tart little berries have all the uses of blueberries or currants: in scones, on cereal, in fruit compotes, in muffins, on pastries, in ice cream, stuffed in pork, and of course in luscious pies. But by far the best way to enjoy them is straight off the bush during a nice walk in the woods.
Click here to read more about the places where huckleberries grow.
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