Huckleberry season is now in full swing out west and this means the Amish of Montana are enjoying one of the delicious local delicacies. The wild huckleberries grow high up in the mountains and begin to ripen mid-summer. Huckleberries also happen to be a favorite food of grizzly bears, so gatherers have to be aware of their surroundings. Amish cooks in Montana use the huckleberries in pies, milkshakes, shortcakes, and coffeecakes.
Look at this delicious huckleberry milkshake I enjoyed while visiting the Rexford, Montana community.
This is a huckleberry pie filling recipe. You then pour this into a pie crust and bake at 425 for about 10 minutes and then reduce down to 350 for another 30 minutes. Yum! This same recipe can be used interchangeable with blueberries, so there is some versatility here.
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 1 /2 teaspoons butter
- ¼ cup clear jel or cornstarch
- 2 cups huckleberries
- Boil together sugar, water, salt, lemon juice, and butter.
- Add 1 cup berries.
- Bring to a boil again.
- Mix clear-jel with a little water.
- Add to liquid mixture.
- Cook until clear. Take off heat.
- Add rest of berries.
brenda
my mother used to take us to the special spot my great grandmother had shown to her for huckleberries on family farm and I have never seen it take so long to accumulate enough berries for a lone pie in my life. they are super flavorful I will grant but so teeny tiny and have to pick enough to allow for baking down. very very tasty and lots of opportunities for conversation. not something one wants to take along a brother that is just interested in putting them into his own mouth rather than the container for Mom to bake a pie.
that same grandmother had some secret places for finding huge blackberries.