Everything You Need To Know About Idaho’s State Fruit

I know what you’re thinking.

Potatoes are NOT a fruit.

You would be correct.

But before we do a deep-dive into any other foods from our great state, I thought it’d only be right to give credit where credit is due.

Potatoes are king in Idaho after all—over 13 billion pounds are produced here each year.

And we wouldn’t want any jealous vitriol-filled spuds coming after us.

But this isn’t a deeper look into tubers.

No, sir.

Our mission today: to learn everything there is to know about Idaho’s state fruit—the huckleberry.

Let’s hop in the time machine and contemplate things that didn’t exist before the year 2000.

There was no iPhone. No Facebook. And no state fruit in Idaho.

But that changed when a group of fourth graders from Southside Elementary in Bonner County sprung into action and proposed the huckleberry as Idaho’s state fruit—perhaps after reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

On February 13, 2000, Idaho’s state legislature made it official and from that point on, our state was no longer state-fruitless.

So what is there to know about the huckleberry?

For starters, they only grow in specific elevations, most commonly between 2,000 and 11,000 feet above sea level.

Huckleberry bushes can take a quite a while—up to 15 years—to fully mature.

And because huckleberries rely on a layer of snow for survival during the winter, they are not grown commercially.

This relative scarcity can make them quite expensive, but so worth it!

And if you’re a label-checker—what about nutrition?

Huckleberries are jam-packed full of antioxidants, vitamin B, vitamin C and potassium.

One cup of huckleberries has 84 calories, and would take about 23 minutes to burn off.

But so worth it!

So whether you toss some in your yogurt or muddle them in your favorite beverage (or pick up a can of St. Chapelle’s Wild Huckleberry Spritz from the gift shop in the Boise Airport)—with our state fruit, you can’t go wrong!