Huckleberries

Mama is from a different time and place.  Being 102 years old, she's seen depressions, wars, marriages, divorces, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, births, and deaths.  With that, she still enjoys simple things; humming birds, deer in the back yard, and has often told me that the two things she loves to see the most is the American flag waving in the breeze and a snowfall.  Being a Louisiana girl, snowfalls are few and short-lived.

Each morning she goes out and scatters a large cupful of bird seed on the old picknick table and some on the ground.  After she leaves, a host of squirrels, birds and rabbits will come to feed.  Young rabbits come so close to her that she could actually step on them. 

Now that I'm retired, I spend a few days with her each month, coming up every other week to do a few chores, give her some company, and take her grocery shopping.

For the past few days, she's concentrated on 10 or 12 wild huckleberry bushes around her country home, so we went out and picked a few.  She says my brother will enjoy making some huckleberry jelly.  She's collected and frozen a couple of pints of them.

Picking berries fits more into a rural lifestyle and wouldn't fit into the plans of a much younger generation whose life experiences are shaped by electronics and social media posts.

So, what are huckleberries?  Huckleberry plants are perennial shrubs that grow from 2 to 10 feet tall, depending on full sun, and produce tiny blueish black berries about ¼ to ½ inch in diameter that has a sweet tart flavor. On my Mom's place, there are probably a couple of dozen nearby if you go down into the woods.  

Picking them is time consuming so the harvest is more of a pleasure than an economic solution and I would venture to say the same about making one's own jelly.  

ETA:  Jelly is made.

Rick helped pick more berries so they went to work making jelly.

Huckleberry Jellies!