Today is really October 23rd, but I’m posting this as of the day I took these pictures and picked huckleberries – September 17th.
Bowl of evergreen huckleberries
We’ve had this huckleberry bush for maybe 25 years. It’s on the west side of our house, and it got happier over the years when the afternoon shade from the maple and cedar trees got deeper. So both time and more shade have given us this truly lovely bush that’s about 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I try not to trim it so it has the most opportunity to produce fruit. This year, we picked at least a quart of huckleberries, and left LOTS on the bush, which the birds are now enjoying (along with the bright red fruit on the Korean Dogwood nearby.) I keep my elephant ears (colocasia) in pots next to this bush during the summer.
Evergreen Huckleberry Bush - vacinium ovatum
In the spring, I posted pictures of the blossoms on this bush – I think maybe of even the same branch. Pink blossoms to blue-black berries. So nice to see this tranformation!
Evergreen huckleberry blossoms are now berries
This morning, as last Sunday morning, we made (gluten-free) Buckwheat Huckleberry Pancakes. I used the buckwheat pancake recipe from Bette Hagman’s book, The Gluten-free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods. Great recipe. This week I used a little less buttermilk than the recipe called for, and added the huckleberries still frozen. What a treat!
Vacinium Ovatam fruit -evergreen huckleberries and Colocasia - elephant ears
Backyard Hubbard Squash
Oh my! I think this baby is coming in at about 30 pounds!? Thank heavens there was only one!
This Hubbard squash has had a select spot this year, sort of a trophy spot. Perfect for growing and showing. This picture was taken about a month ago – I think it’s a little bigger now!
Yes, David is a fantastic vegetable grower. But couldn’t we have celeriac instead?
I grew up eating Manoa lettuce in Honolulu. It was the best fresh vegetable available, and almost the only one that was truly local. (In the stores even bananas mostly came from central or south America, even though they were growing all over Oahu.) Manoa lettuce is an outstanding leaf lettuce!!
It’s never seen in the stores on the Mainland, as far as I know – I’ve never seen it. But a couple of months ago, we found seeds in our newly relocated Uwajimaya store (where Larry’s used to be.)
And David, the fantastic vegetable gardener, started some seeds. Here is a picture of the beautiful Manoa lettuce head that we picked last night, and enjoyed thoroughly!
I’ve updated the Portfolio on my Beadwork page today! More to come….
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