Stan Simonik

Stan and Julie Simonik discovered the joy of huckleberries in the summer of 1983 after moving to northern Idaho from Hawaii. They found them near Priest Lake, and the very next day Stan entered a jar of gourmet huckleberry jam in the bake-off competition at the Priest River Huckleberry Festival.

"It won the first prize in its category and the second overall. Life hasn't been the same since."

In 1997, Stan published the first edition of the Huckleberry Haus Cookbook while operating the Huckleberry Haus Bakery & Gift Shop to help support his ministry. The Simonik's left Priest Lake in 2000 to serve other congregations in Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska, and Texas, where Stan eventually retired.

Their passion for huckleberries was rekindled in August of 2023 while visiting their son Albert, stationed at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho.

"Our visit would not have been complete without immersing ourselves in the beauty of the forest and looking for huckleberries. We found them quickly, and that evening I made a huckleberry pie, grinning from ear to ear."

Now the Simonik family continues their annual huckleberry picking excursions to the Northwest, delighting in bringing some of their treasured berries back to Texas. Changing nutritional considerations motivated Stan to update the recipes in the New Revised Edition, published last year.

"We love huckleberries and  hope to share the joy with other purple-fingered enthusiasts and inspire them to appreciate the beauty of God's creation."