Both red and black huckleberries are native plants in my area. The reds are ripening now; the blacks won't be ripe until late August or so. When ripe, the berries are very tasty eaten just out of hand. IMO, huckleberry pie is the best type of berry pie ever!! But you need a LOT of huckleberries to make a pie so it's not available commercially very often and the berries themselves are not sold commercially but you can find them now and again at farmers' markets.

And because a number of different species of vaccinium are referred to as "huckleberries", the ones I am referring to are Vaccinium parvifolium (red) and Vaccinium ovatum (black).

I am wondering if this topic is about Solanum (nightshade) as that is referred to most often as "garden huckleberries", rather than Vaccinium, the "wild" blueberry or huckleberry.

Yes, I was speaking of the "huckleberry" that is a nightshade--not native huckleberries. Anyone familiar with harvesting and preparing them? In posts from other forums I cannot tell whether they should be picked when they appear ripe or if I should wait until fall. All agree they do not taste good eaten raw.

Aaack. Grew those infamous 'garden huckleberries' (Solanum melanocerasum) 25+ years ago. Very disappointing. Big, healthy nightshade plants with big clusters of beautiful blue-black juicy berries. Followed the instructions to boil & leach them, and treat with baking soda...to remove/neutralize the toxic alkaloids. Then added tons of sugar, grape juice and lemon juice to provide some flavor... made jam and pies... but there was always this unsettling 'metallic' aftertaste...

There are some varieties of S.burbankii, sometimes marketed as 'wonderberry' that supposedly are tasty and edible right off the plant; my experience with the 'garden huckleberries' was so bad that I've never sought them out.

There are(or were) some discussion threads here, from years back(I've been here since 1996) about this 'fruit'.

Some berries take on more flavor after the first frost, regardless of the month. If you are in Virginia mountains, frost should come sooner or later. I suspect that a certain percentage of people do not perceive the metallic or other undesirable flavors of this particular fruit, and it tastes good to them. Try a couple of different methods. Remember than any fallen fruit readily sprouts next year.

Yes, the reviews are polarized. Some people say it is the best jam and pie they ever tasted; others hate it.

So Nothing will be lost by waiting until The first friost (October here) to pick these berries? Some said that once they are fully black they are ready.

I'm growing most of the forms of this berry offered by Baker's Creek this year. The Garden Huckleberry is loaded with extra large berries. I haven't eaten anything yet, mostly because all the other fruits in the garden are at their peak right now. I am hoping this will be something to harvest in between everything else. I grew some form of it in the past (I don't remember which one) and didn't like the flavor but I don't remember following a recipe so maybe it was my fault. I can say that if there is any way to make this berry taste good it would be a good plant to include in any garden, just one plant will give you more than enough berries and nothing seems to be bothering them at the moment.

I grew both garden huckleberry and wonder berry with the same disappointing results in terms of flavor. Tasted like a really bad tomato lacking any sweetness. Any claims to the contrary likely marketing hype. I would not bother making pie with something that does not taste good to begin with! People make pie with all sorts of things, but not all of them are good!

It's not all hype. It has to do with each individuals taste buds. We all have different likes n dislikes depending on our particular taste-buds. My wife and I have the taste-buds that like these berries for several different things. Jams, mixed jams, syrups, tarts, cobblers, pies, etc. Still you do have to process them correctly and that may be different for different people. We also like Salal berries.

These solanum volunteer on my property every year. I didn't plant them and I have no idea where they came from. (I did ID them very carefully to make sure they are not one of the similar looking deadly plants!) They are sweet enough off the plant, but I did not like the aftertaste at all. Metallic is about right. I have had wild nightshades that tasted better.

It doesn't sound like cooking them will improve that. Too bad. Since I can't seem to get rid of them it would be nice if they were useful.

Did you ad a bit of lemon juice and baking soda while cooking?

When I grew them, I used baking soda, per instructions, then grape juice concentrate and lemon juice - to provide flavor, as they had none of their own... still had that disconcerting metallic aftertaste...

I'm sure somebody somewhere on the verge of starvation ate (and survived) both garden huckleberry and or high-bush cranberry, and lived. But if they said they enjoyed it, they were lieing...

OK, Then I'm lieing when I say that my wife and I make pies, jam, and other things with them and we like them just fine. Just picked some today and at the pea patch where I garden they grow wild and I pick them - - - - - .