# GARDEN HUCKLEBERRIES



## NorthernWinos (Feb 5, 2007)

Getting a good case of cabin fever....wasn't going to order any garden seeds this year as I thought I had plenty left from last year...

Been going through the seed and nursery catalogs getting some orders together....Usually order my garden seeds from Stokes, Buffalo NY....see they have some seeds for Garden Huckleberries....

Anyone ever grown these??? What are they??? And the BIG question...Would they make wine???




Wonder what it would be like...


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## Waldo (Feb 5, 2007)

Huckleberries I think woul make an awesome wine NW. They are similiar to a blueberry, smaller and more tart. I have hunted far and wide last year for some huckleberry bushes. Mom used to can them all the time, made pies from them that were to die for,


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## NorthernWinos (Feb 5, 2007)

Waldo said:


> Huckleberries I think would make an awesome wine NW. They are similar to a blueberry, smaller and more tart. I have hunted far and wide last year for some huckleberry bushes. Mom used to can them all the time, made pies from them that were to die for,



I have been reading all afternoon...these Garden Huckleberries are an annual plant...they look like Black Nightshade...some reviews are good, some not so good.The plants look spindly and much like a weed.We have lots of Black Nightshade in growing around here and I sure wouldn't want to get confused.

It said one plant would make one pie which would be similar to a blueberry pie...


Guess these are not related to the Huckleberries from out West in Montana...





On second through it doesn't seem like such a good idea...maybe next year I'll try some annual Garden Huckleberries.I like to try something new every year.

I am ordering some Tomatillos seeds in this order...I grew them many years ago for Salsa and had volunteer plants for years.The lady who lived here before we bought the place in 1997 grew Ground Cherries and we still get volunteer plants from those...would hate the Garden Huckleberries to take over the county along with the Black Nightshade that my husband cusses as they stain the Soybeans when he harvests the beans.

Might try them, depends on how bad this cabin fever gets...


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## Waldo (Feb 5, 2007)

Ever tried making a wine from the soybeans?


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## grapeman (Feb 5, 2007)

NW you sure don't want to mistake black nightshade for them and make anything out of it. I once had some very sick heifers that ate some of it along the fenceline. When I found out what it was, I used the weedeater on it. I got juice from it all over me and my arms started burning from it, got burns on my arms with raised whelts and got a wicked fever for a couple days. After that I sprayed it with roundup- safer for everyone.


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## NorthernWinos (Feb 5, 2007)

Waldo said:


> Ever tried making a wine from the soybeans?



No, have never thought of Soybean Wine...but I sure like the look of that corn in those bins out there...When I unload the trucks I just run my fingers through the corn and wonder...CORN WINE...


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## NorthernWinos (Feb 5, 2007)

appleman said:


> NW you sure don't want to mistake black nightshade for them and make anything out of it. I once had some very sick heifers that ate some of it along the fenceline. When I found out what it was, I used the weedeater on it. I got juice from it all over me and my arms started burning from it, got burns on my arms with raised whelts and got a wicked fever for a couple days.  After that I sprayed it with roundup- safer for everyone.



Some of the Web Sites I looked at today the Garden Huckleberries sound and look just like Black Nightshade, and they are related...It also said that they self seed....so I think I will stay away from them...and will think about it and read more on them....

The Black Nightshade grows quickly here, it gets sprayed with RoundUp in the Soybeans, once, sometimes twice and by harvest they are back out there, the young berries really stain the beans and the seeds cause dockage at the elevator....so don't need anymore of that type of plant around here.

A girlfriend's little kids picked some green berries from Nightshade and brought them into their Mom, said they had picked her some 'peas'...she gave them all a dose of Epecac and made them all throw-up...





The real Huckleberry bushes from out West I think are only hardy to Zone 5, so that leaves me out.


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## grapeman (Feb 7, 2007)

We have huckleberries here too. I think they are a little sweeter. The bushes are taller and the berries black without as much dusting on them. 


Reminds me of Huckleberry Hound Dog. Mayber we will have a member take that name sometime, like Grape Ape


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## OilnH2O (Feb 9, 2007)

NW, 


I have a couple of gallons of huckleberries in the freezer from last summer -- and they grow wild here in Montana and are simply the best pies and jams in the world -- good in pancakes too. So, the ones I have will go into a wine at some point. 


I do know there are three species, although don't recall exactly all the differences. The hucks themselves are all super, and while related to blueberry (as said above) it is hard sometimes to figure out how! The fruit is usually smaller, sometimes as big, looks the same, but has a reddish cast to the skin (but is deep blue-black, as said above) and the fruit is deep red -- as is the juice. A blueberry will stain blue -- a huck will stain red. 


However, people here have tried for years to figure out how to get them to grow "domestically" and it is very difficult. Those that have been successful seem to never get the plant to produce fruit -- which is why huckleberries are so expensive ( a gallon ziplock filled with them -- about 5 lbs -- starts at $30 at roadside stands!)


Okay -- all this is to say that the "garden huckleberry" you have found is likely not the same plant -- and I'd be careful. I can't imagine that if the plants have been domesticated (and produce fruit)to where a seed catalog would have them, that everyone in Montana wouldn't be beating down their door!



*Edited by: OilnH2O *


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## NorthernWinos (Feb 9, 2007)

I agree...the garden Huckleberry is an annual plant, a relative of the Nightshade..[which is tomatoes, etc] The real Huckleberry is a shrub...

I saw a show on Montana Huckleberries...they sold, jams, jellies, ice cream and syrup and some were also making wine...it all looked good.

Have never seen the real Huckleberry shrub in any seed or nursery catalogs...I was kind of excited when I saw Garden Huckleberry seed for sale, but it is not the same as the wild variety...too bad.


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