Huckleberry Happiness
Is there anything better than playing hooky on a Thursday to forage wild huckleberries in the mountains? Okay, maybe a sunny day foraging. But cold fingers and damp socks aside, hats off to foodie Becky for sharing her secret Snoqualmie Pass berry grounds. Even better, the crew provided great wines, dill-grilled prawns, pumpkin spice bread, Tom Douglas’ Tuscan bread salad, line-caught home-smoked coho salmon spread, lemon orzo, and vanilla bean crème anglaise (with two ice cream machines whirling away). Plus an assortment of children to run and scream in the vicinity to keep the bears away.
Want the inside scoop on the berry patch location? Becky has agreed to divulge the GPS coordinates, but only through a feuding network of centuries-old secret societies. Your clues: One, huckleberries symbolize the feminine (plant fertility). Two, remember the mathematical number that signifies roundness (think huckleberry pie, wink, wink). And three: look for an unscraped goat-skin parchment in Venice. Good luck!
I think I can find them now…thanks for the clues! What a fun day!
I sealed my berries and put in the freezer. I think I’m going to save them to make Tom’s roasted duck with huckleberry sauce and parsnip hash when the winter cold strikes, er, looking outside, it’s stricken—maybe sooner rather than later.
We have a few huckleberry plants in our landscape with ripe berries I need to pick, likely all of a 1/2 cup full. In 5 years, they’ll be nice and hearty and will only have to brave a few small steps to forage them with the La Pavoni close by when my tootsies get cold.