Althouse: Cherries & Hucks.

August 16, 2012

Cherries & Hucks.

Today, near Hungry Horse, Montana.

50 comments:

YoungHegelian said...: Okay, forgive my ignorance, but what's a "huck"?

Is it a nickname for huckleberries?

Some enlightenment from you westerners, please.; 8/16/12, 11:49 PM
chickelit said...: "Hucks" are huckleberries?

I order huckleberry jams online from link; 8/16/12, 11:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Huck if I know.; 8/16/12, 11:51 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Chickelit

Great minds are confused alike?; 8/16/12, 11:51 PM
Quaestor said...: Huckleberry jam; 8/17/12, 12:01 AM
chickelit said...: @YoungHegelian:

We can plead, beg, coerce, demand, expect some people to have the ability to spell things out. It won't happen, some will never, don't have the ability, brains, desire, gumption, etc to do it. They will always be our responsibility as a civilized society. We won't let poor Meade and his partner Ann be duped by some illiterate vendor if we can help it.; 8/17/12, 12:03 AM
Quaestor said...: I have found no instance of "huck" or "hucks" referring to huckleberries. I have learned that the huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho (There are at least four fruits known as huckleberries, Idaho claims the Black Huckleberry, Vaccinium membranaceum.) Since Idaho is comparatively nearby maybe the Black Huckleberry is what the kiosk vendor means by "hucks".

This is the second photo from the Meadehouse Montana trip showing casino signage. Are these tribal establishments, or has Montana adopted the Nevada model?; 8/17/12, 12:15 AM
Chip S. said...: A casino, cocktails, cherries and huckleberries seems like a volatile mix.; 8/17/12, 12:16 AM
Quaestor said...: Evidently cherries grow exceedingly well in the northern Rockies. Utah harvests 2 billion sweet and tart cherries annually. There's a considerable harvest in Montana's Flathead Lake region as well.; 8/17/12, 12:31 AM
wyo sis said...: Huckleberries/Hucks are more than a match for cocktails and casinos. Huckleberry pie and ice cream is food of the Gods.; 8/17/12, 12:32 AM
Anonymous said...: Huckleberry Hound wrote that sign. That's good spelling for a dawg.; 8/17/12, 12:33 AM
dhagood said...: i don't that i've heard the term 'hucks' used for anything. i've always said huckleberries.

mmmmmm, huckleberry pie.; 8/17/12, 1:18 AM
Chip S. said...: i don't that i've heard the term 'hucks' used for anything.

Oh, I'm certain you're familiar with the
singular form.; 8/17/12, 1:34 AM
Wally Kalbacken said...: The land that time forgot.; 8/17/12, 2:09 AM
edutcher said...: If we send you guys a box, will you mail some cherries back to The Blonde?; 8/17/12, 5:33 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: I would like to trie some of your cherrie pye.; 8/17/12, 6:06 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: See those white dots on the painted cherries? That's an artistic convention indicating the reflection of light and that simple dot can indicate wetness roundness and the source of light. Sometime the dots are four squares distorted as a tiny window pane reflected in the eyeball. When I was a little kid I hated those dots, always large squares in the Japanese cartoons I read even when the character was not inside a building. Here, the artist doesn't understand them, the artist knows they should have them but not why, or the imaginary light source they indicate is on the floor. Which makes them look like pupils in eyes looking down and the opposite color, instead of reflections on cherries from natural light, but that's accepting the red balls as eyes and not as cherries.

This concludes the pedantry concerning the artistic convention of reflective white dots, noted for your artistic advantage.; 8/17/12, 6:19 AM
traditionalguy said...: He did not build that business by his own efforts.

Tectonic plate shifts and ice ages made those mountains which attracted those tourists.

Come to think of it the Federales once sent out the Army to exterminate or Reservationize the pesky savages. And now one of the savages descendants has left the reservation in Oklahoma and thought up an excuse in Boston for the Federales to tax it away. Revenge!; 8/17/12, 6:34 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: I have found no instance of "huck" or "hucks" referring to huckleberries. I have learned that the huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho (There are at least four fruits known as huckleberries, Idaho claims the Black Huckleberry, Vaccinium membranaceum.) Since Idaho is comparatively nearby maybe the Black Huckleberry is what the kiosk vendor means by "hucks".

Don't know how far down in Idaho huckleberries are big, but we had Sunday brunch at the Coeur d'Alene resort/hotel about a month ago, and ended up with huckleberries in 3 or 4 things. Most notable were the huckleberry mimosas. Much better than the ones with OJ.

But huckleberries are big in NW Montana too. GF and her ex took their kids to the Huckleberry Festival a town or two away every year. Picked them, found them in everything imaginable (again), etc. We were supposed to go this year, but she is there, and I am here in the cooler Colorado mountains.

As a friend of mine pointed out, who lives a bit north of Coeur d'Alene, when I mentioned the excesses a month ago on the menu, that huckleberries are a really big thing up there.

Oh, and if it isn't too late, there are a couple of very nice huckleberry flavored vodkas on the market. The liquor stores should have such in stock. The two I have bought were from Idaho, but still worth it - if you (like me) don't drink flavored vodka yourself, they make a great gift.; 8/17/12, 6:49 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: This conversation reminds me a bit of cherries growing up. Grandparents, and 3 generations before them, are buried in Benzie County, Michigan, and my memory growing up and visiting every summer is cherries, cherries, cherries. The ID/NW MT huckleberry thing seems a lot like the cherry thing in MI, where you found cherries in everything. And, esp. cherry pie.; 8/17/12, 7:00 AM
KCFleming said...: I bet they're as tasty as your Door County cherries.

@Chip:
The white dots are hilarious, mirroring the misspellings.; 8/17/12, 7:13 AM
yashu said...: Chip Ahoy, very interesting. I will notice those white dots from now on.

See some of the white dots in one of my favorite paintings.

In the course of google image searching for that, I discovered this. So awesome!; 8/17/12, 7:23 AM
vet66 said...: I think some of the readers here are due for a road trip into the American outback. City slickers...; 8/17/12, 7:25 AM
Brennan said...: Free Cherries? I'm calling the IRS. They will not be pleased.; 8/17/12, 7:30 AM
rehajm said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/17/12, 7:35 AM
rehajm said...: Okay, forgive my ignorance, but what's a "huck"?

A 'huck' is a nickname for a huckleberry invented by a sign painter with a limited amount of paint, signage real estate, and ambition...; 8/17/12, 7:37 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm noticing an uptick on news coverage out the war zones lately.. suicides and a 'death per day' count since the first day of this year.. whats up with that?

Why cant the press wait until after the election to report this?
Is the MSM going wobbly/bailing on Obama?

It figures that should Romney Ryan prevail, they are going to need some credibility back.. make the switch from lap dog to attack dog seemless.; 8/17/12, 7:41 AM
Carnifex said...: Just a note because I'm heading out to the doctors in a minute...re Tomneys tax returns...Zero's just asking for 5 years of returns. Thats all he wants, just 5 years.

Who wants to bet the 10 years of Romney returns are leaked to the press in monht, month and a half? We could do an over/under on the amount of years, and the amount of time.

Trust Zero to subbourn the IRS to fuck over an opponent. Its his modis operendi.

Forgive the speeling errors, in a hurry. ciao.; 8/17/12, 7:52 AM
Scott said...: I think Romney should take at least as long as Obama took to reveal his birth certificate.

Cherries are in season at the local Shop Rite. I'm in heaven!; 8/17/12, 7:55 AM
Curious George said...: I would have gone with "Do Drop Inn".; 8/17/12, 8:01 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Using the IRS to pressure your political opponents?

No.. thats not Obama.

That was Nixon.. I believe.. and why would the press draw any parallels with Nixon? the presidential paragon of principle.; 8/17/12, 8:06 AM
wild chicken said...: The land that time forgot.

It was that way, until about 1995.; 8/17/12, 8:13 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: No humble pie for me ;)

I dont know, I feel unusually upbeat today.

Must be something bad is going to happen.; 8/17/12, 8:14 AM
Anonymous said...: @Bruce Hayden:

I just got back home from a week in Benzie County. According to the hostess at the Cherry Hut, 80% of the tart cherry crop was lost this year because of a week's worth of temps in the 80s in February. The Cherry Hut buys cherries from many Benzie County farmers so they had no loss in business. I did my duty and bought a pie and a jar of cherry butter.; 8/17/12, 8:18 AM
yashu said...: That was Nixon.. I believe.. and why would the press draw any parallels with Nixon? the presidential paragon of principle.

Heh. You're just a nattering nabob of negativism.; 8/17/12, 8:21 AM
chickelit said...: I must admit that I first tried the huckleberry avec something at Chez Panisse back in my gourmand days.

/lowers nose; 8/17/12, 8:29 AM
Mark O said...: I'm your huckleberry.; 8/17/12, 8:29 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Oh yea..

At least I'm not Romney.. and his verbally abusive bloviating ;); 8/17/12, 8:36 AM
Anonymous said...: Watched Danny Sullivan spin and win the '85 Indy at the Dew Drop Inn. It was a logger bar back then.; 8/17/12, 8:50 AM
David said...: Hungry Horse, best dam down in the west.

(The dam is actually worth a visit.); 8/17/12, 8:50 AM
yashu said...: I find the email exchange between Obama campaign manager Messina and Romney campaign manager Rhoades on the subject of Romney's tax returns very amusing and emblematic of the two campaigns.

Messina's email is creepy.; 8/17/12, 8:57 AM
lemondog said...: Photo made me think of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges

I see 3 cherries.

What?! That's not a 3rd cherry?!; 8/17/12, 8:59 AM
madAsHell said...: Messina is creepy.
Pederastic creepy.....like Harry Reid.; 8/17/12, 9:05 AM
Known Unknown said...: Mark O. wins.; 8/17/12, 9:54 AM
Rusty said...: Is the "Stoner" Bar still in Hungry Horse?; 8/17/12, 1:29 PM
Penny said...: Last I heard, they relocated to Stallion Holler.; 8/17/12, 8:45 PM
Penny said...: Mares started "outsourcing".

And it all started with pizza.; 8/17/12, 8:49 PM
Penny said...: Go figure?; 8/17/12, 8:50 PM
Penny said...: What is it about that "pie"?; 8/17/12, 8:52 PM
Penny said...: *woof*; 8/17/12, 9:45 PM