If you have ever tasted huckleberry ice cream you know there is nothing else like it. Sure, if you don’t live in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana) then you have to settle for blueberry ice cream. And blueberry ice cream is delicious but it is no substitute for huckleberry ice cream.
If you are traveling through the Northwest and want to take some huckleberry ice cream home with you then you can usually find it on sale at stores like Fred Meyer, Safeway, and Rosauer’s. Even Wal-mart may have it in their frozen treats section sometimes.
The brand to look for is Tillamook. Tillamook ice cream is sold across the country but they limit distribution of their huckleberry ice cream to states where huckleberries are local favorites.
If you live in or near Iowa, basically any region served by Wells Enterprises, their Blue Bunny brand Huckleberry ice cream may be sold in a local store or restaurant.
Unfortunately, Blue Bunny is not (yet) a national brand and it’s hard to say that they or Tillamook could scale up huckleberry ice cream production enough to meet national demand for the product.
If you want to request huckleberry ice cream in your local store, Tillamook helps you do so. But the way the food industry works you may not be able to get the products you want into your stores.
Tillamook’s Website has a “where to buy” page that you can use to look up stores in your local zip code that carry their products. If you find a Tillamook-friendly store, you have a shot at getting the huckleberry ice cream, especially if you live anywhere west of the Mississippi but even that is not a guarantee.
If you find a store in your neighborhood that carries Tillamook products you should check out their ice cream section the next time you go shopping. If your store has a Website where you can search products, give that a shot. Be sure to select a default store so that you know if your local store carries the item you want.
If you don’t find the Tillamook Huckleberry Ice Cream in your store you can use this page to create a special PDF file that Tillamook’s Website generates for you. They ask you to print out the PDF file and take it to your grocer. Just give it to someone at the Customer Service desk. Explain to them that you want to buy huckleberry ice cream, which you know is normally sold through the northwestern states. Often the store manager will tell you how much demand they need to order a product, or if they cannot get it for you.
Don’t be angry if the product is not available in your area. Grocery stores have to move product in bulk and the distributors they use have to buy in large quantities. Sometimes you can get a case of product and sometimes you cannot. It helps if there are restaurants in your area that serve the product because often they have to use the same distributors that grocery stores do.
The Blue Bunny Ice Cream site also has a “where to buy” page you can use to look up stores that carry their products.
Both Tillamook and Blue Bunny may be sold by your local Walmart or Kroger stores, but keep in mind they’ll be more likely to sell standard flavors like Vanilla and Blueberry. Blueberries are grown on commercial farms because they have been domesticated. Huckleberries are still picked in the wild, mostly from national parks, because they have not been domesticated.
There is another possibility, too, although we consider this a long shot. In July 2013 Jeni’s Ice Cream announced they had acquired a half-ton of huckleberries and they offered a Huckleberry Yogurt product. Jeni’s will ship frozen desserts to many US locations. You can read more about how Jeni’s ships product here. Unless a product they list as available says “huckleberry” assume it is NOT a huckleberry dessert. They may sell “Lavender” and “Wildberry” products, which may be very delicious but at best you can probably only hope they include some huckleberries. Contact them to find out for sure.
Jenis’ Website is not very well-designed. You may have a little trouble navigating around it and finding information. You might be surprised to learn the company is based in Ohio, so take heart from the fact that a midwest company once offered a huckleberry product. Hopefully they’ll do it again.
Now, if you cannot buy huckleberry ice cream you can still have it if you don’t mind making it. Of course, you have to buy the huckleberries. In 2017 you’ll pay about $89 for a 4-5 gallon bucket of frozen huckleberries.
Check out our huckleberry ice cream recipe article for details.