You pick the leaves (the younger plants are better, natch) and cook them up very much like spinach. The flavor is very like spinach too... more like New Zealand spinach than the regular kind.
I’ve never heard of or seen huckleberries in the South. Sure that they weren’t some variety of blueberries? If they were indeed huckleberries, I’d sure like to find some as they make awesome pancakes and syrup.
You pick the leaves (the younger plants are better, natch) and cook them up very much like spinach. The flavor is very like spinach too... more like New Zealand spinach than the regular kind.
I don’t know, JDB. My grandmother called them huckleberries, so that’s what I called them. They were not blue in color. They were smaller than a blueberry and much darker...almost black. They were abundant on my grandparents’ property.
I became curious after you mentioned that you had never seen huckleberries in the South, and searched online. Here is one thing I came across:
http://www284.pair.com/florists/all-about-flowers/Huckleberries.htm
JDB - We currently have wild huckleberries on our land and my 3 brothers and I have picked them when we were younger eons ago. That’s the only name I’ve ever heard them called by aroound here. The bushes aren’t more than a foot or two high and the berries aren’t more than a third to half as big as a domestic blueberry. I have domestic blueberry bushes but have never seen wild blueberry bushes per se, that I know of. I’d always thought wild blueberries were generally up north. I imagine they’re all related though.