BAKER CITY — Abigail Cockram didn’t even need to move and she had enough huckleberries to make a delectable pie.

And a milkshake.

And a batch of pancakes.

And maybe some muffins.

Cockram, who lives in Baker City, did have to move her hands, of course.

Huckleberries have many attributes, but alas they don’t leap into a bucket.

The berries in this particular spot were so abundant, though, and so big, that Cockram had only to turn, switching from one bush to the next, to gather a bounty of the juicy purple berries.

“This year the berries are gigantic,” Cockram said on Thursday, Aug. 3, recounting a visit to her family’s favorite patch on July 29.

About half an hour’s picking yielded around half a gallon of berries — a considerable amount given that even the largest huckleberries are smaller than their cultivated cousin, the blueberry.

“I think it’s been the best picking this year,” Cockram said.

Which is a dramatic difference from the summer of 2022.

Last year the berries were so few that Cockram and her family didn’t even bother bringing any home — they just ate what they gathered from the nearly barren bushes.

This is the sort of unpredictability that veteran huckleberry pickers come to expect in their annual quest for the fruit with a powerful tart-sweet flavor that belies its diminutive size.

Cockram said she and her husband, Kenny, spent several years searching Northeastern Oregon for prime picking grounds.

“We looked at lots of areas — Catherine Creek, around Sumpter, anywhere with huckleberries,” Cockram said.

About five years ago the couple settled on a spot to which they return every summer.

(The location is privileged data, so to speak; huckleberry pickers tend to be at least as reticent as elk hunters in discussing their destinations.)

On weekdays, Cockram typically picks with her children — twin sons, Jesse and Jace, 9, and daughter Oakleigh, 7.

On weekend excursions they’re joined by Kenny and, on some occasions, by friends.

“We love being in the mountains,” Cockram said. “I want my kids to enjoy exploring the area.”

In just two days of picking this year — about four hours total — the family has brought home almost two gallons of berries, Cockram said.

That more than meets the first of their annual goals.

“We always try to get a gallon at least in the freezer, for baking throughout the year,” Cockram said.

Huckleberries are integral ingredients in a variety of recipes, she said.

Some require quite a lot of berries — a batch of huckleberry jam, for instance, takes at least six cups, Cockram said.

Smaller quantities of berries also enrich pancakes, muffins and a dessert crisp that Cockram learned about last year and has become her favorite recipe.

“It’s so good,” she said.

Cockram said her husband favors huckleberry pies, although that recipe, like the one for jam, requires a bunch of berries.

Like the Cockrams, Phyllis Johnson of Baker City has reveled in this year’s abundance of berries, especially welcome after the disappointing 2022 crop.

“Last year they just weren’t out,” Johnson said. “This year they are out in abundance, and they’re large.”

Johnson said she and her husband, Kent, usually focus on three or four picking places, but this year the first one they visited, about two weeks ago, had such a profusion of berries that they haven’t needed to look elsewhere.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said.

Johnson said she uses most berries in crisps and pancakes, her husband’s favorites.

Johnson offers advice for berry pickers who plan to freeze some of the summer bounty, as if often the case, especially when berries are abundant.

She said she used to rinse berries in water before freezing them, but she learned that this can damage the berries.

Instead, she recommends either rinsing and then drying berries before freezing, or freezing them without rinsing, then rinsing berries after they’ve thawed.