Huckleberry shakes a time-honored treat
<p>Diana Hinzmann brings a pair of huckleberry shakes to a customer at the Bigfork Ladies Service Club booth at the Northwest Montana Fair on Tuesday. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Cheryl Harber gets ready to dip a corn dog covered in homemade batter into the fryer at the Bigfork Ladies Service Club booth at the Northwest Montana Fair on Tuesday. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
Decadent, creamy soft-serve ice cream swirled with crushed huckleberries is one of the Northwest Montana Fair’s most iconic treats, and there’s only one place to get it.
The Bigfork Ladies Service Club food booth, with its well-known sign of the cartoon bear, is a mandatory stop for scores of fairgoers. By the time the fair is over, the club and its nonprofit partners will have served close to 5,000 huckleberry milkshakes.
“It gets crazy busy,” said Chris Easton, past president of the Bigfork Ladies Service Club. “We’re the only ones with huckleberry shakes.”
The stand has only one shake machine that can make two at a time.
“We crank ’em out,” Easton said. “It gets a workout.”
The Bigfork Masons started the huckleberry shake tradition decades ago. When the Masons needed more manpower, they contacted the Bigfork Ladies Service Club five years ago and the women began helping out at the popular food stand that offers not only the popular shakes but also hand-dipped corn dogs, burgers and other traditional fair food.
In 2014 the women’s group took over management of the stand and coordinates the schedule for the various nonprofit organizations that also use the food sales as a fundraiser.
Bigfork Boy Scout Troop 1923 is at the helm of shake and corn-dog duty today, with Bigfork Middle School students taking the lead this evening to earn money for their trip to Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, members of the Bigfork PEO Chapter CI work their shift, and on Friday Flathead Valley Community College culinary students will give their serving skills a workout. Flathead youth soccer players are on tap for Saturday, and on Sunday the Bigfork women will wrap it up. Before the fair officially began, the local Hadassah group took a shift Tuesday night.
“It’s a way for these groups to make the money they need,” Easton said. “We want them to get a piece of the pie.”
The Bigfork Ladies Service Club, founded in 1961, has made donations in recent years to Save a Sister, Ray of Hope, Neighbors in Need, Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry, Bigfork Food Pantry, Lake View Care Center, Abbie Shelter, Sparrow’s Nest, Bigfork ACES, Samaritan House and the Boys and Girls Club.
The club also gives money annually for a $2,500 FVCC scholarship.
The Bigfork club has a local huckleberry supplier that makes sure they have enough of the purple berries to get through the fair. The club purchases the huckleberries a year in advance to ensure proper quantities.
The batter mix for the hand-dipped corn dogs is a trade secret, passed down by the Masons.
Throughout the fair, members of the ladies club oversee the various shifts to make sure all of the volunteers are well-versed in their duties.
“We have over 100 volunteers,” Easton said.
Members of the club are certified through ServSafe, a nationally recognized food safety training program. They’re sticklers for food safety and got an A rating from the local food inspector last year.
“We’re hoping for an A plus this year,” Easton said.
With only 20 or so active members, the Bigfork Ladies Service Group welcomes new members. Anyone interested in joining can call 837-6011 or email bigforkladiesserviceclub@gmail.com.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.