Pick huckleberries off vines or at markets

If you've got a hankering for huckleberries, you could take to the woods this month and next to find enough of the tiny, tart, crunchy fruit to bake a pie. Or, you can just head to a nearby farmers market.

A pair of local foragers say they expect to have the blueberry-like fruit plucked fresh from the forest at their stands during the coming weeks:

• Wild Things owner Donna Westom will be at the Wallingford Center farmers market today or at the University District farmers market Saturday.

• Jeremy Faber of Foraged & Found Edibles will be at the Columbia City (today), Bellevue (Thursday), University District (Saturday), West Seattle, Ballard and Capitol Hill (Sunday) farmers markets.

Grocery stores, including PCC and Metropolitan Market, say they typically don't carry the berries due to the challenge of keeping them in stock.

If searching in the woods is more your speed, a good bet is a visit to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Call 360-891-5001 or visit www.fs.fed.us/gpnf for details.

Make sure you make a positive identification of any berries you pick before eating them.

To find berry-picking sites in the Cascades, call the Mount Baker Ranger District at 360-856-5700; the Skykomish Ranger District at 360-677-2414; or the North Bend Ranger District at 425-888-1421.

Still too much work? Metropolitan Market plans to offer huckleberry pies from Whidbey Pies Cafe of Whidbey Island from mid-October through December.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com