Lemonade is made from lemons and "sumade" is made from Staghorn Sumac (not to be confused with Poison Sumac which looks completely different with its smooth round white berries). Staghorn Sumac is a bush. Its leaves are pinnate meaning each stem has many leaflets(I've counted 28) growing oppositely each other along its length. The leaflets are slender, toothed like that of a saw, and are pointed at the tip. Touch the branches and with closed eyes and you will not be able to tell the difference in texture to that of velvet. At the tip of each brach is a flower. The flower is made up of thousands of little seeds that are coated in soft hairs and are clustered together to create what looks like a ruby red wooly cone. The hairs are saturated in malic acid which is this very characteristic that makes "sumade" the tart thirst-quenching drink that it is. You can sample the flower by dabbing it with a wet finger and licking the tip of you finger. It will be sour!
See the instructions below for making "sumade".
1. Removed a flower (this is easy because they tend to be low growing and easy to snap off).
2. Once home, break flowerhead into smaller sections and place in a pot.
3. Poor cold water over the flowers and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. Next strain flower water into a pitcher or individual glasses.
5. You can add sweetener to taste.
You will have made a refreshing pale orange Summer drink!
 |
| Processing Sumade |
No comments:
Post a Comment