Sumac Lemonade

Lately, we've been making up several gallons of blueberry lemonade from our recent trip to the U-Pick blueberry farm. Great stuff. But I was reminded on the way home from Topeka today that the sumac that grows along the edges of pastures and old railroad right of ways is just about ready to harvest to make sumac lemonade/tea. Those red heads make a wonderful, high Vitamin C drink that when sweetened with honey has a citrus flavor. Higher in Vitamin C than oranges, it is refreshing cold, and soothes a sore throat fast. You can make pink lemonade and jelly, too. Great stuff, and it grows all over the area!

Sumac jelly is NOT made from POISON sumac with white berries, or the aromatic sumac either. [White berries are an indicator that the plant is poisonous (very few exceptions)]

Sumac jelly is made from the heads of staghorn sumac or smooth sumac - the shrubs with the big red heads that kind of remind you of milo heads. The sumac leaves start to turn brilliant red a bit later in the season. To make the lemonade drink, just steep the berries like making sun tea, then strain out the berries - it's wonderful! I once fed a whole camping crew on sumac berry tea (pink lemonade), but didn't initially tell them what it was - they thought it was great, but were really surprised when I showed them what it was. So the sumac gives it a tart taste and is a beautiful pinkish red color, so it goes well with apple.

Here's a link to the sumac lemonade recipe, with a picture of staghorn sumac: http://www.natureskills.com/lemonade_recipe.html

And here's a link to the apple/sumac jelly recipe with a better photo: http://thomasburg-walks.blogspot.com/2006/08/apple-sumac-jelly.html

I'm thinking maybe along with the blueberry lemonade we are making for the upcoming EALFN fund raising event at the Farmers Market on Aug. 15th, we might go in for some Wild Sumac Lemonade as well. What'd'ya think? That might cause something of a stir amongst local food fans!