Bounty!

went out for a little walk... thought to pick some blackberries. well, one thing led to another and the next think you know...

blackberries, oregon grapes, apples and a bag of.... sumac!

behold! the ripe drupes of the staghorn sumac! that's right, drupes. google it.

now i'm sure you see this stuff all around the city. its kinda flashy, used ornamentally, and it is a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

go ahead. next time you are walking around and you see one of these guys poking up from the leaves of a sumac tree, walk up, and just... grab it. now, lick your fingers. that's right, don't be shy.

sumac has this fantastic lemony tangy taste (mostly tannins and malic acid). it's good stuff. and the cool part is that the flavour is mostly on the outside.

what does this mean to you? it means that you can take a bag full of ripe sumac heads (like the above specimen), soak them in a pot of cold water overnight, strain it through a cheesecloth, and the resulting rose coloured liquid is delicious. try adding sugar to make sumac-aid or even more sugar, some yeast and ferment for sumac wine :)

more on the fate of the other goodies in later posts