There are few things I enjoy more on a hot summer day than a dish of ice cream — specifically huckleberry ice cream.
Several types of huckleberries grow in the wild in the USA. Western huckleberries are what most people are familiar with, and these grown in abundance in the mountains near where I live. They are actually common throughout the northern Rockies (Idaho, Montana and western Wyoming), with some in the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges along the coast. Huckleberries typically grow between 2000 and 11000 feet altitude and are hard to grow commercially, so most of the ones you see in products were picked in the wild, which is why they are so expensive.
There’s something special about the flavor is hard to beat in ice cream — certainly much better than blueberries. Sweet, with a slight tang of tartness. Make sure when you buy huckleberry ice cream that looks like the ice cream shown in this post. It should contain lots of berries and berry chunks, like this bowl was which I bought at a Huckleberry festival in Trout Creek, Montana.
The only thing more tasty than a fresh dish of huckleberry ice cream is a thick huckleberry milkshake — but that’s a story for another day.
