Red Huckleberry Love

A hurricane is in the Gulf, it's hotter than hell, and it's been over ten days since I last posted. How can it be?? The semester started, short answer. I'm teaching creative writing and a section of composition, fiction editing, teaching a kids' writing workshop on Saturday mornings, taking three classes... the round-up for a grad student, I guess. Anyway, my baking hat had been set aside, until this morning when I made a Black Bottom Ricotta Pie. It's in the oven right now. Sounds weird, but I think it'll be good-weird. Cheescakey. (It's is another Haedrich invention). Meanwhile I treat you to pictures of something decidedly NOT in Haedrich's cookbook: red huckleberry pie. First of all, I feel I must redeem the Northwest given Sarah Stalin, er, Palin's association with my region. I bet you a million bucks she has never made a red huckleberry pie. This is a Northwest delicacy. It's distinctly tart - woodsy, fresh, and intense. It's special because the berries take so long to collect and because you just don't see it much. Even Seattle's local organic etc. stores don't have red huckleberry goods, most of the time. These aren't to be confused with blue huckleberries - also delicious, but much closer to blueberries. Red huckleberry is as native a Northwest plant as you can get. My cousin taught me its Lushootseed (Coast Salish) name, which I should remember...

This is my most prized pie of the summer season, hands down. I'm eying it longingly while I swelter in this subtropical zone sans wild berries of any kind. It's not the most attractive of slices, with all that rainwater fed juiciness. A little more thickener and probably sugar would have helped. Again, ice cream saves the day. I'd post a recipe but I'm guessing most people don't have access to red huckleberries. If you do, it's just like any fresh berry pie, plus the added starch. Now I must go check on that ricotta experiment.

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