Huckleberries

[seedcorn]

@Zeedman grew garden huckleberries as a kid. They bore buckets of fruit. Beyond nasty raw. Birds wouldn’t touch them. From what I’ve read, have to wait for them to soften, then cook and use. According to some on internet, prepared that way, are excellent. As a kid, ate huckleberry pie and jams my grandma made in southern T from what grandpa picked wild. I can still taste them-excellent!
I was going to go with that different strain of garden huckleberry until you mentioned birds spreading-plus eaten green are poisonous. Appreciate knowledge.

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman grew garden huckleberries as a kid. They bore buckets of fruit. Beyond nasty raw. Birds wouldn’t touch them. From what I’ve read, have to wait for them to soften, then cook and use. According to some on internet, prepared that way, are excellent. As a kid, ate huckleberry pie and jams my grandma made in southern T from what grandpa picked wild. I can still taste them-excellent!

How seedy were they? I noted that on the Baker Creek photo of chichiquelite, there was a cracked berry, and it looked very seedy inside.

Thanks for the info on birds & garden huckleberries, that is reassuring. I have enough volunteers in my garden as it is, without adding one more. I'll never need to plant ground cherries, tomatillos, or martynia... just thin the volunteers. The shrubby tree Buckthorn has also naturalized in my neighborhood; the birds eat the berries & those tree seedlings pop up everywhere.

 

[seedcorn]

Don’t remember them being seedy. Just nasty tasting raw. We never knew how to prepare them-no internet 50+ years ago. I’m going to buy a packet of seeds and try 4-5 plants.