Reader photo: Berries by the bagful

Out foraging: As every picker who hasn’t been in a coma knows, the region is enjoying a bumper crop of huckleberries. With so many berries around, pickers can be picky. No need to harvest small less-than-ripe berries. No need to fire shots over the heads of the family that stumbles into your patch.

As lower elevation berries dry out in the summer heat, move higher and to shadier mountain slopes.

Be judicious in the use huckleberry pickers – gently bump the berries off rather than stripping them off and damaging leaves and branches that could affect future crops.

Better yet, use your fingers. That method still works very well.

Have at it. Leave some for the bears.

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