Big machine, tiny little berries

The berries are blown down the spout and into the box, sans debris.

Huckleberries, for those who don't know, are a tiny berry similar to a blueberry in appearance. The taste, however, is quite different. A bit tart, but sweet at the same time, with a strong flavor, these little berries make a big impression.

Picking them can be quite a job. Most people who want a large amount place some type of container under the bush and hit the bush with a stick or object to knock the berries down into the container.
These bushes grow best under some shade, so they are usually near a fir tree or three. When you hit the bush everything comes falling down into the container, including any loose fir needles. (Think tree skirt under the Christmas tree.)

Our property is full of huckleberry bushes. We decided to take advantage of the abundance. I picked one basketful  earlier in the fall and did it with a painstaking process. One by one. Then I brought my basket inside and I cleaned them by hand and picked off every tiny little stem. I used those for the pancakes.

This time we wanted to make jelly, so we needed a lot of huckleberries. What we didn't need was to spend days cleaning them.

Chuck is so connected to people in the community that he found someone who still has an old berry cleaning machine. That family has contracts with companies who purchase the berries from them, so they are still using this old machine.

It was a cold evening, and Chuck had picked a bucket full of huckleberries. He called to see when we could get them cleaned and the guy said to come on over.

Quite the operation.

I had never seen one of these machines. The guy dumped our berries in and the machine blew out the debris and funneled the berries down the spout and into the wood box.

Sean enjoyed catching the berries as they came down the chute.
There were lots of wood boxes
filled with berries stacked at one end of the shed.
That family has been busy.

We took ours home and we're getting our jars, lids, pectin, sugar and large cooking pots ready. Jelly contains an amazing amount of sugar. It's kind of sick, really, but the product is really tasty.