When you’re looking for healthy, tasty produce it can be hard to know where you actually want to shop to get what you need. If you’re after something slightly more niche then you might be wondering, does Trader Joe’s sell huckleberries?
Trader Joe’s does not usually stock huckleberries, and you would be very lucky to find them at any Trader Joe’s location. They do not sell these berries frozen, and they rarely have significant variety in their fresh produce section.
Read ahead to get the low-down on this particular berry and the alternative options you can explore.
What Is Trader Joe’s?
In case you don’t know much about this phenomenon that has quickly become one of the favorite places for Americans to get their groceries, Trader Joe’s is a chain that now operates more than 560 stores across the US and is best known for its unique and specialist products.
They are keen to deliver an excellent customer experience and they are big on quality at an affordable price.
They tend not to have a wide variety of different types of each product and they rarely sell anything that is branded. Instead, their stores are filled with interesting items that you won’t find anywhere else.
Trader Joe’s Fresh Produce Section
While the frozen and pantry sections of Trader Joe’s regularly receive rave reviews from customers and critics alike, the fresh produce that you will find in-store is perhaps not quite as exciting.
Since Trader Joe’s wants to deliver the same experience all across the country, they do not tend to have a wide variety of different and rare fruits and vegetables on offer.
The produce that they do sell, however, is usually very high-quality and it is often organic too!
Although huckleberries are not likely to be found anywhere in the store, you will find some great alternatives. In terms of the fresh fruits and berries that you can buy, some of the most popular that Trader Joe’s usually has on the shelves include:
- Cape Gooseberries
- Wild Boreal Blueberries
- Fresh Organic Cranberries
- Raspberries
- Strawberries
- Mangos
- Pineapples
- Sumo Citrus Mandarins
- And other seasonal selections besides!
If you’re looking in the dried or frozen sections, there are even more fruits and berries to be found, including:
- Organic Mango Chunks
- Semi-Dried Green Figs
- Semi-Dried Apricots
- Organic Tropical Fruit Blend
- Freeze Dried Strawberries
- Organic Freeze-Dried Berry Medley
- Organic Acerola Puree
Huckleberries and Their Culinary Significance
Before we get into where to buy them, we should talk a little about what huckleberries are really like, and what you might want to be cooking with them.
Huckleberries grow wild across eastern North America, the Andes, and other mountainous parts of South America. They closely resemble blueberries and are full of antioxidants and nutrients like vitamin C. You might be surprised to find out that the huckleberry is actually the state fruit of Idaho!
In terms of their flavor, most people compare huckleberries to blueberries, but they are quite unique in their own right.
They are usually bigger and, depending on the color, they can be sweeter too. They also have a certain wild edge to them which makes them really stand out on the palette.
They are typically made into jams and jellies, or cooked into desserts like pies. Huckleberry crumble is a very popular recipe, and you definitely can’t go wrong with a cinnamon, lemon, and huckleberry pie.
To check the current price and availability of Huckleberries, click here to view the listing on Amazon.
Will Huckleberries Be Available At My Local Trader Joe’s?
Now, while huckleberries are definitely not part of the standard stock that Trader Joe’s has to offer, that doesn’t mean that there is no chance at all of them appearing on the shelves.
Fresh produce across Trader Joe’s stores is typically quite uniform, but it does vary slightly from location to location, and it will change with the seasons as well.
The best way to find out whether or not your local store will be stocking huckleberries anytime soon is to do a bit of research for yourself.
You can check the Trader Joe’s website to see if they are in stock, however, they don’t list all of their products there, and they won’t show you what is unique to individual locations. You will probably have better luck contacting customer service to get the most up-to-date information, or visiting your local store and asking around!
Results: Does Trader Joe’s Sell Huckleberries?
As we mentioned before, you’ll be lucky if your research does come back with a positive result. Huckleberries are simply not a common offering at Trader Joe’s, no matter where you are in the country.
It’s actually unlikely that you will find huckleberries in any grocery store unless they are locally grown or frozen.
They are a challenging berry to farm on a commercial scale and they do not last very long when they are shipped, so they are rarely stocked by bigger chains.
With that being said, they are more likely to appear in the parts of the country where these particular berries grow most frequently, which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. It’s also a lot more likely that you’ll see them anywhere during the picking season, which ranges from late July to mid-September.
Where Else Can I Find Huckleberries?
You’re probably not going to find huckleberries at Trader Joe’s, so where else could you look?
Your best bet will almost always be to investigate your local farmers’ markets. This is where the freshest fruits and berries are going to be, and they are likely to have a varied selection that changes with the seasons as well.
The other option is to buy them through one of the specialty stores online that sell huckleberries and other slightly uncommon fruit options, such as Northwest Wild Foods, Fresh ; Wild, and West Coast Wild Foods.
More often than not, you will be buying them frozen, and the prices can get pretty steep compared to a local market stall.
Final Thoughts
So, does Trader Joe’s sell huckleberries? The answer is: not usually. While the fresh produce can change at Trader Joe’s depending on the season and the location, huckleberries are something that is almost never on the shelves.
You can swap them out for some blueberries, or you can take your search elsewhere – like a local farmers market or an online specialty store. Unfortunately, due to how difficult they are to grow and transport commercially, they are very rarely sold at grocery stores at all.