Sixteen Pounds!

We had a great camping trip in Idaho this year, even though it rained most of the time. The frustrations of wet weather were tempered by two things: first, the rain cheered me up and got me out of a weeklong grumpy funk; second, we wimped out and ended up cooking meals and hanging out in Leo and Tricia's convenient rental condo. Since there were four families of us (including 6 small boys), we couldn't all sleep there, but sleeping in a tent during a rainstorm is actually just great as long as most of the water stays outside.

Really, what we mostly did was pick huckleberries. Day 1 was in the rain, Day 2 was partly sunny. A late, wet spring made for the most fabulous huckleberry picking any of us have ever seen.

For those who don't know, huckleberries grow only in the wild, and are usually sparsely scattered on low bushes. They are tiny and take a long time to pick, but they are worth every hour.

This year the berries were huge and grew very densely on the bushes. We found several wonderful patches near our campsite. We brought home 16 pounds of tasty berries, and we have a happy, full freezer now.


We have already had the most incredible huckleberry bread pudding with pecans and homemade caramel sauce. Future goodies await for visitors we like a lot, or who pay us enough money. As Sammy learned, huckleberries are as precious as gold (currently trading at $957 per ounce, though we do offer a small family discount).