Montana Woods N Water July 2016 Print Edition | Page 35

THE ROOT CELLAR

Purple Gems
By Raf Viniard
With a Montana summer comes all kinds of berries. Huckleberries, chokeberries, elderberries,
buffalo berries, blueberries, serviceberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries just to
name a few get the conversation going. Each of these can be frozen, jellied, jammed, juiced,
canned, made into syrups or frozen for future use and/or baking and are very good for your
health. Some of these beautiful fruits are even used in the production of adult beverages such as wine and brandy. My Kentucky hillbilly
brothers and sisters have even been known to make something a little stronger with these wild fruits that will tickle your innards.
After reading the Feature article on page 7 it would be wise to start learning how to locate, identify, collect, prepare and use any of these
berries that may grow in your area for various uses. A quick Google of any of these berries and you will have more information than you
have time to read. Learn to use the resources the man upstairs has provided us. Just like morel mushrooms, they are out there for the
picking.
For this article we will focus on the little purple Huckleberry. Huckleberries are pretty abundant across NW Montana. Like anything else,
there are secret little patches that folks had rather give up their first born than tell you where to pick a bucket full of these purple gems.
Huckleberries grow in the wild and man has tried to transplant them for commercial use with very little success. Huckleberries can fetch
as much as $40-$50.00 a gallon, so you will be competing with professional pickers just like mushroom hunters.
Getting ready for a berry picking adventure is a low cost endeavor and will do you good to get out into the mountain fresh air. Grab some
one gallon buckets, a side arm, some bottled water and gas for the truck. No the sidearm is not to fight off other pickers but just in case
you stumble on that one bear that has decided he is not in the mood to share his/her berry patch.
I like to use a gallon bucket with a metal wire handle and pass a rope through the handle and throw the rope over my neck and let the
bucket hang down in front of me so I don’t have to pack it and I
can easily drop the berries right in the bucket in front of me. This
also allows you to have to two hands free to pick or one to pick
and the other to shove berries into the mouth. When the bucket
gets full, head back to the truck and place them in a cool dark part
of the vehicle….grab another bucket and repeat.
These hardy little purple
berries can normally be
located at elevations above
3000 feet. I have found them
on north, south, east and west
slopes which means they can
be hiding just about anywhere
in the mountains. I have found
Photo by: Robin K Ha’o
the berries on the south slopes
to ripen first and usually a little bigger but that can all change with
seasonal weather patterns. Too dry and the berries will be very
small. Too wet and they may have already ripened and fallen off.
They may be in the shade, partial shade or full sun. This berry
finding thing is starting to sound a lot like elk hunting doesn’t it?
They are where they are. Continued on page 34.

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