Blueberries: The Continuing Saga

While I waited patiently for the wild blueberries to get a move on and ripen up, the cultivated bushes are gong nuts all over the place around here.  Peak season can often mean discounts for bulk.  We don't want to miss out on things like that, so thanks to my lovely aunt and cousins who watched my children all day while I drove to Tougas Family Farm and picked blueberries for three hours.  I just made the 25 pound discount.  Only just!  It takes s a long time to pick tiny fruit off a bush.

After about 45 minutes or so, the field I was in started to clear out until I was the only person left in that area.  I stood in front of the same 4-6 bushes for the entire time (they were laden with ripe fruit), with no sound but the wind in the pines and the birds over head.  Silence.  Those of you with children may have a hard time understanding me here.  What I mean to say is: there was no sound.  For two full hours.  I'm not sure I've had that experience in a couple of years at best.  It was magnificent.  So much so, that a couple of times I got kind of choked up.  I didn't full on cry, but I came close. 

When I got home it quickly became clear to me that my children could easily eat 25 pounds of blueberries in one sitting. so I took them away. I filled a couple of pints and put them in the fridge for snaking.  I have frozen 12 pounds.  To freeze them I just laid them on a baking sheet lined with parchment  paper in one pound batches (about three cups) and froze them.  After that I put them into mason jars.  I would have probably vacuum sealed them but I was out and it seems a little easier to get at this way, I can take as little or as much as I need.  They do, however take up more space in the freezer this way, so I may have to vacuum seal them later anyway.

I also took 3 pounds and made 4 pints of blueberry juice concentrate (instructions here).  With this I will be able to make refreshing blueberry juice and berry sumacade during the winter.  I am planning to make 12 jars of jam tonight (if I don't choose to go to bed instead) and will dehydrate about four pounds into fruit leathers, which I hope come out better than my strawberry fruit leathers. 

These 25 pounds will most likely take care of my yearly blueberry needs.  I went back with the kids the next day and we picked for pleasure an even got some peaches.

 We took home about three pounds, which are being turned into pancakes, snack, and dinner. 

Athena Made this lunch herself!

While I was out in the blazing heat picking the cultivated berries, the precious wild berries were ripening.  I made plans with my friend Kerry, fellow mother and earth lady, to meet in the woods behind Target.  She would bring her two boys and I would bring my big girl.  We got up early, grabbed our buckets and our cups on strings (these are to hang around your neck to free up both hands for picking) and tromped into the woods.  The bushes were covered! It was a much better show than the week before.  Athena got right to picking, just as I thought she might.  We hadn't been in the woods 10 minutes before Kerry's little one, James, let out an ear piercing scream.  He had been stung by a bee.  His momma managed to calm him down and he was game to keep picking (and eating) the tiny wild berries.   We got back into our groove and there was another ear piercing scream.  This time from Athena.  It kind of started as a whine and so at first I didn't think she was hurt.  She's four-and-a-half and whining happens a lot around here.  But within seconds, I realized she too had been stung by a bee.  I could see the little guy on her pants.  I pulled the pants away from her leg, but there was still screaming.   I picked her up to carry her to the path and over her shoulder I could see Kerry's horrified look, "She's covered in bees," she said.  Sure enough Athena had a bunch of bees on her pants.  We stripped them off and her poor little legs were covered in at least ten stings.  Luckily I had made toothpaste the night before and had brought some for Kerry to try out.  She ran to the car to get it and I put the baking soda mixture on all the bites. I guess it neutralizes the sting. It seemed to make a difference.  But the bees wouldn't leave her pants alone.  I think she probably got more peach juice on her pants than I had realized before leaving the house.  To make matters worse, they were inside out, so there were bees all up in her pants.  Kerry got a stick and tried to get the bees out, because, you know, she had no pants on, but while the attempt was being made, James got stung again.  Off came his pants.

"Just leave the pants here, I'll get them another time!"  And out we ran, about a third of a cup of blueberries between us and two kids with no pants on. 

Back at the van, while we waited to see if our kids were going to go into anaphylactic shock, I ran into Target to get Athena something to wear.  When I got back and gave her a dress, she was very pleased, and not suffocating.  So all was good.  We relaxed a bit.  The kids ate some pretzels.  I spent my time feeling horrible.  I had led my new friend, her children and my own first born into a bee hive.  Traumatizing children is not part of my wild edibles MO. My revelry of self-loathing was interrupted by yet another ear-piercing scream.  Apparently the bee that had been hanging out on James for the past 20 minutes had decided to sting him. Poor kid! So we made everyone take their clothes off and reinspected them for bees. 

We all calmed down again.  The kids listened to music and the mothers discussed the resilience of children.  We eventually decided to run our errands at Target so we could at least say we got something done.  We walked along the edge of the parking lot, the ripe, plentiful blueberries teasing us all along the way.

"Ain't nothin' in this world is free, baby," they said, "take the bad with the good and come on over."

We (the moms) decided we would find something in Target to occupy our children, and after our errands were run, we would come back out and pick some more.  And so we did, Kerry pulled up her van, parked it sideways and opened the door.  We sandwiched the kids in between the van and the edge of the parking lot.  Armed with a new box of sidewalk chalk we told them to "stay in between these white lines" and went into the woods to pick blueberries.  Really, we were right there, just up a two foot slope.

 Athena and James sitting on the curb, the blueberry forest in the background.  Athena is admiring her "sorry-you-got-stung-by-ten-bees-and-we-had-to-leave-your-pants-in-the-woods" dress

Eventually, they heard the saucy call of the blueberries and came up to join us, picking and eating to their heart's content.  They were not even scarred for life a little bit.  In under an hour we both picked about two cups.  This is really not so bad for wild bushes.  We didn't travel far and could have gotten a lot more with a little more time and a little less kids.  We are working out a way to go back without the little angels. 

I feel like I have passed some sort of initiation.  This is my first utterly ridiculous time collecting wild edibles.

(Almost) Blueberries

 I have been stalking the woods behind Target for about a month now.  By stalking I don't mean walking through them and  discovering the land; I mean watching, spying, creeping up on, etc.  I noticed last fall that the pine forest behind our local Target has an understory of blueberry bushes.  Like, the whole forest floor is blueberry bushes.  So I have been mostly patiently waiting to see if they would fruit, (they did!) and now I am waiting for them to ripen.  I have missed quite a few seasons of wild edibles since I started learning.  Many plants have a really short season, so it doesn't take much to just miss it completely.  During the winter, when you're curled up with a field guide, cross referencing that with your recipe books on wild edibles (anyone?), you start to get exited about this new thing you will try in about nine months.  You see your plant emerge in the spring, maybe flower, or start to get berries, and then someone gets sick, or you go away for a long weekend, and--poof--just like that it's over and you have to wait an entire year to try out cattail pickles. 

I will not be making this mistake with the blueberries, believe you me.  So, I have been stalking them like a jealous lover.  No, wait. Let me think of something less creepy...I have been watching them like a careful mother.  That's better.  I have been tenderly keeping an eye on them, watching their buds turn to flowers, the flowers turn to round, green fruit, watching the green fade away to a deep blue, and the blue turn dusty and delicious.  When I was there yesterday I climbed up the embankment and, huzzah!, they were ready.  I emailed my blueberry picking posse (that's right, I have a blueberry picking posse) and told them to meet me at the Target at 7am if they're ready.  It's just as well no one was, because when the little one and I got there with two buckets, some water, peanut butter sandwiches and a wagon, it turns out that only about twenty or so berries were actually ready.  And we ate them. 

It is a little early for blueberries.

Because I hadn't actually gone into the the woods yet, I could only see the berries on the edge that get a little more sun. They obviously ripen faster, and the bushes under the cover of the trees are behind about a week or so.  That's cool, I don't mind waking up at 6am on a Sunday morning. 

It wasn't a total loss, though.  We got to explore the woods, finally.  The land used to be a farm, so there is an old cart path down the middle of the area.  It ends abruptly at a fenced in water run-off for the Target.  Probably, when they built the building they had to provide for all the water that would no longer be able to seep into the ground because their parking lot was on top of it now.  There seems to be a way to go around it and presumably the path starts up again.

I couldn't explore that this time with the little one in tow. The area we were in was about 400 feet by 200 feet, but the other side of the run-off pool is much bigger.  It's really cool to be in woods that aren't a state forest, conservation land or a park.  It is someone's property and will most likely be a Panera Bread some day, but for now it's just "the woods" and that feels pretty old-timey. 

 Can you see the Target Red?  

I wish I could tell you that my little one was in glory for being in the woods, surrounded by blueberry bushes, the warm morning sun filtering through the trees.  I mean, I guess I could tell you that anyway, but it would be a lie.  The whole time she was saying things like, "I tired of walking, Mama."  Or, "We go home now?"  And even, "I tired of standing and sitting and walking, Mama." To which I replied that those are the only things she'll ever do excepting lying down, so she'd better get over it now.

 Can you see her?  She's that tiny orange speck with the mane of curly hair in the sea of blueberry bushes.  Doesn't she look like such a little nature child?  Well what you can't hear her saying is, "CAN WE GO HOME NOW, MAMA?!"

She did stop occasionally to eat a blueberry or watch an ant, but on the whole she was pretty cranky.  I think next time I will just bring the big girl and see how that goes.  We eventually made our way back to the wagon and headed out into the parking lot again. 

Looking at the parking lot and shopping center through the woods while I try to get food to eat kind of makes me feel like a little animal who's environment has been encroached upon.  I think about the fact that this property (which is for sale) will someday realize the financial dreams of its owner and become something worth while.  The blueberries, wintergreen, sassafras, and whatever animals live there, will be churned under or driven out.  After that, when it becomes something "useful" people will notice it, and forget what was there before.  Maybe it will take long enough to sell that chunk of land in this economy for my kids to have memories of trespassing on private land to gather the blueberries for their summer and, hopefully, winter enjoyment.  Maybe my kids can have the more and more forgotten experience of saying, "I remember before that was a Lowes, my mother used to take us blueberry picking there."

Beach Peas!

I found beach peas!  This is exciting because it's a wild food that tastes just about exactly like a cultivated food.  I think this is fun because it feels more like finding food in the wild and less like turning something wild into something you would consider food.

I'm not sure if this takes away some of my hardcore naturalist points (if I have any), but I'll accept the hit. (Sort of like when I tried and tried to read Pride and Prejudice and just couldn't get into it even though I tried with all my heart.  I knew I was giving up forever being able to call myself "well read" but I just don't like Jane Austin and I don't care about her cutting-edge feminist rich people.  There I said it. But I do like the movies that have been made from her books because of the costumes!)

 There wasn't enough for me to harvest anything really serious, just enough to mix with some rice and have with dinner. Sometimes I like it when there isn't enough of something to keep.  All of this packing away takes me out of the moment of life.  I live in future-land too often as it is.   When we find something like four ripe raspberries, or three wild strawberries, or a cup of beach peas it's nice to have a complete moment, without the chore of  keeping.

So I pointed these little beauties out to my big girl.  She of course new what they were and started picking and shelling them with me.  The peas are smaller than regular peas, but very sweet and really, just perfect.  I am exceedingly proud to say that when she would come across one that had a dweller within she would say, "caterpillar," and toss the whole thing over her shoulder.

She has no fear of insects, which is more than I can say for myself at her age (or up until the age of about 25).

So we collected about a half a cup, snacked a bit on the beach and tossed the rest into some rice.  It was a great find and a fun activity.

More Sea Lettuce!

The girls and I went to the beach the other day and manged to find amazing amounts of sea lettuce.  I brought it all home, rinsed it and hung it to dry on our laundry rack.  This may or may not have been a good idea (little pieces ended up sticking to it).  After it was dry my littlest one and I shoved them into mason jars.  I now have four pretty packed mason jars full of seaweed.  It might even me more than enough for the whole year!

Wild Grape Leaves

I love stuffed grape leaves.  My love affair with this Grecian treat started of all places at the Willowbrook mall in New Jersey.  I am sort-of from New Jersey a little.  Anyway, in the food court there was an eatery called Athenos or something like that.  They had an amazing stuffed grape leaf salad.  I'm not sure what would have compelled me to order a salad topped with little green logs filled with who-knows-what at 12 years of age, but I did and I've been hooked ever since.

I happen to have a massive amount of grape vines growing in my back yard.  I have something of a teeny tiny wilderness back there and they thrive.  The vines thrive not the berries, there's not enough sun for those.  So, in trying to use everything I have at my disposal I decided to go and harvest some and try my hand at making these little tastes.

 This is a little bit of my wilderness, what isn't grape vines is goutweed a nasty invasive. 

I checked out out this site, consulted Steve "Wildman" Brill's book, and looked up a recipe in the Joy of Cooking, melded my new knowledge and came up with these! 

 The first thing I had to do was collect them.  Grape leaves are best tasting in the spring and early summer. I'm not sure what happens after that, but my guess is that they become tough.  Once they start wearing leather jackets and carrying switch blades it's best to stay way from them.  Medium-sized ones are preferable, not too small to roll up but not too big and tough.  You do need some big ones though, so that you can line the pan and cover the stuffed ones (more on this later).  I just took a bucket and picked all the good ones I could get at easily.  I ended up picking about 100 leaves in no time at all.  (I think I also got about 100 bug bites).

 
Be careful to inspect your leaves, this one had some sort of hatching beetle on the back of them, and the one below shows the trail of leaf borers.  They're just bugs, but if you want your meal bug-free take a close look at your leaves.

I sorted them into leaves to roll, and leaves too big, too ripped or too small for the pan.  Then I prepared a filling.  I used white rice, amaranth, chopped walnuts, chopped dried cranberries, and onions and a couple dried figs.  (I'll have the full recipe at the bottom along with how to freeze them for later use). Then I prepared the leaves.  Steve Brill says he just rolled them up with a filling and pressure cooked them.  I didn't try, but I suspect that without cooking the leaves a little bit it would be difficult to roll them up without tearing.  The joy of cooking says to soak them for an hour in hot water because they are assuming you're using jarred leaves.  So I just steamed them for about a minute or so.  Even this I think may have been more steaming than I needed and next time I plan to cover them with very hot water for a minute or two. 

Then you simply take a spoonful of the filling, place it on the base of the leaf (where the stem would be), vein side up and roll it up like a burrito! For those of you who have never made a burrito or are inept at rolling them (it happens, don't feel bad) that would mean: roll it up so the filling is just covered and then fold the sides over and continue to roll so the sides are all tucked in and it's like a neat little package.

 Place them seam side down in a pan you have prepared by lining the sides and bottom with grape leaves.  This took about 5 large leaves for my #8 cast iron skillet.

 Place all your little grape leaf rolls side by side all snug and then pour stock or water over them, drizzle them with olive oil, cover them with more grape leaves, weight them down with a plate and cover the pan.

The Joy of Cooking says to cook them for about 30 minutes, but they were using raw lamb and I wasn't so I cooked them for about 15.  After that, take them out, put them on a plate and let them cool down completely.  I sprinkled them with a little vinegar so they would have the taste that I'm used to.  They came out really great!

There's the recipe: Makes about 10 Stuffed Grape Leaves

Ingredients:
20-25 Fresh Grape Leaves.  10 medium sized ones to roll and 10-15 to line the pan.
1.5 cup cooked white rice
1 cup cooked amaranth (I thought I was using quinoa, while I was cooking it, realized it was amaranth, so I think you could use either!)
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup walnuts chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries chopped
5 dried figs chopped (you could leave these out if you don't have them, I thought it was a nice touch.  You can also use any dried fruit you want)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup water or stock
4 tablespoons olive oil

To prepare the filling:
Mix the amaranth and rice together with a fork.  Amaranth* is a bit sticky and porridge-y, it's not really tricky or anything, but the goal is to separate the amaranth into the rice so there are no clumps.  Saute the onions in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until tender, add the dried fruit and walnuts and saute until fragrant.  Mix the onion mixture with the rice mixture.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.

Prepare your pan:


Prepare the leaves:
Stack up ten leaves (11 is you think you might mess up!) and lightly steam them.  Really only steam them for a minute.  Their color will change to a dull green.  You can try to place them in a bowl and over them with hot but not boiling water until they change color and then strain them.  I haven't tried this yet, but I think it will work. Take one leaf at a time and place vein side up, stem side toward you on a clean surface.  Put a spoonful of filling on the end and roll up, folding the sides over as you go. Place them seam side down in the prepared pan.  Once the pan is full with your 10 rolls pour 1 cup of stock or water over them and drizzle with the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Cover with the rest of the leaves, weight them down with a plate and cover with a lid.  Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.  Remove them from the pan and let cool.  Sprinkle with vinegar if you desire and enjoy!

To Freeze:
 Take 25 leave and  stack them.  Roll them up and tie with a string.  Dip them one at a time into boiling water for a minute to blanch.  Let cool and put them in a plastic bag.  Press out as much air as possible (I actually vacuum sealed them) and pop them into the freezer.
This was so super easy that I really really hope that it's works!

*Amaranth is also a super food, filled with good for you stuff like lots of protein.

Sea Lettuce, anyone?

Why yes, thank you.  When we went to the beach recently I collected some sea lettuce. Today I cooked some up and am currently drying the rest to use as a spice for soups later.  Apparently sea weed is some sort of super food containing more vitamins and minerals than land veggies and also carrying a heavy dose of protein and soluble fiber.  Sounds good, but how does it taste?  I sauteed up garlic in olive oil and added some chopped bok choy so the dish would have some crunch.  I added the rinsed and chopped sea lettuce and then powdered ginger and sesame seeds.  I am pleased to say that it was really great! I will definitely eat it again.  Next I'll try soup. 

Recipe for Sauteed Sea Lettuce:

1 Tablespoon of olive oil
2-5 Cloves garlic, chopped
1 Small head of bok choy, chopped
2 Cups rinsed and chopped sea lettuce
1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder (or if you have fresh, chop and saute with the garlic)
1 Teaspoon sesame seeds


In a medium skillet heat the olive oil and saute garlic 'til tender.  Add bok choy and cook until just wilted, about 2 minutes.  Add Sea lettuce and cook for about 1 minute or so.  Add ginger and sesame seeds, stir it up and cook for about another minute and serve!

Sea Lettuce, a Mermaid, and Rockets

Yesterday we were invited to a friend's beach house right on the chilly Atlantic.  The girls were beyond excited to get in the water and run free.  I was excited to see them enjoy themselves and maybe get into the sand myself.  My grandmother lived about a five minute walk from the beach, and during my childhood I spent every summer walking to the rocky New England beach, collecting rocks,visiting tide pools, and searching for the perfect sea shell. 

Now a days I tend to look for oceanic wild edibles.  One of my favorites is sea rocket.  It has the incredible taste of wasabi, and although I usually don't like spicy foods, this I can manage.  I have been meaning to invent a good chicken salad recipe especially for this wild food.  So, yesterday when I crossed over the dunes and found that the whole beach was lined with the stuff I was pretty excited.  I also found a lot of sea lettuce.  I collected a couple of zip lock bags full, it's in the fridge now waiting to become soup (I'll let you know how it turns out).

I've never noticed this before, so maybe I've never collected sea lettuce during this part of the summer but many of the plants I pulled form the shore line had clusters of eggs of some kind on them.  I threw them back and think I manged only to pull egg-less lettuce form the sea....I am curious to know what animal will emerge form these tiny wonders. 

This was the mermaid I made.  I wish I could say that I made it with the kids, or even for them.  They did become interested once she really took shape.  My big girl collected all the seaweed and sea straw from the beach in huge armfuls for her hair. 

...and then the ocean took her back.

First Wild Strawberry of the Season!

There it is....

There it went....

Dandelion Wine

 

A few weeks ago, my daughters and I dipped off the main road that runs through our town into a field to pick dandelion flowers.  Risking social scrutiny and limes disease we waded through the tall grass and filled a canvas bag so Mommy could make "a grown up drink." I had got it in my head while walking home from my four-year-old's first field trip to make dandelion wine.  I have been informed by my husband that it isn't really dandelion wine because the dandelions are not actually being fermented, but dandelion flavored wine.  I have also been informed by Rico Check's book Making Plant Medicine, that some of the medicinal qualities of dandelion are preserved in the wine, so it's all a wash and good old-timey fun.

I wasn't sure how much we were supposed to collect so we just collected until the kids started complaining.  When we got home I set to de-bugging and making sure all the stems were off.  If you use just the petals it results in a less bitter wine. It's really time consuming to remove just the petals, so I thought I could find an easy medium. I just used my fingernails to pinch off most of the green part of the flower.  This also was really time consuming and it resulted in a completely blackened thumb and forefinger nail, which looked really gross for a couple of days no matter how many times I scrubbed with boraxo. 

When all was said and done and the inch worms had crawled away I had about 3 quarts of mostly petals.  These were then supposed to be steeped in boiling water in a  non-reactive container and covered with a cloth (I used a crock from a crock pot with the lid).  So I boiled up a gallon and a half of water and poured it over the flowers and let it steep.  When I informed my husband that I was "now making dandelion wine," he--being an experienced beer and mead maker--informed me that we are without much of the equipment needed to progress to the next stage after the flowers had steeped for two days.  So once again a project was begun on a whim and then the exciting scramble to get what is actually needed to finish said project had begun.  It wasn't really as dramatic as all that, but we did have to drive into Cambridge to the Modern Brewer to get a 2 gallon bucket and an air lock.  Let it be said that this can be done with a wine bottle and a balloon, but apparently the quality "is for suckers."  

After the flowers have steeped they are put back into a pot with some other fun things like orange peels with no pith, a couple of lemon peels with no pith (pith makes the wine bitter), the juice from these fruits, a couple of cloves and brought to a boil for ten minutes.  We then strained the mixture into a large stainless steel bowl, added four-and-a-half pounds of sugar and let it cool a bit. When it gets to a temperature yeast likes (which is usually about 110 degrees) I added the juice, champagne yeast and yeast nutrient.  We poured the whole thing into the 2 gallon fermentation bucket and then let it sit.  I basically used the second recipe on this site, but changed it up a bit, as you can see.

In the morning, we looked at it and didn't believe it was doing anything, even though the air lock buoy had risen and we could hear the sound of bubbles popping. So we opened up the top to see and it was of course doing something.  We then called the Modern Brewer  and they said it was doing something and opening up the container was the worst thing to do but that it would be fine and we would in fact have wine of some kind at the end of this adventure.  They also said that we could do something called "back sweeten" the wine which means adding sugar after the wine has stopped fermenting.  The sugar that is added at this point is not eaten by the yeast, as the four-and-a-half pounds we already added will be. The new sugar can then behave in a more traditional way for sugar and sweeten the drink, making what my husband called "dandelion wine coolers." Do you think he was making fun of me?

Wild Lettuce

I picked some wild lettuce the other day. You can eat the young leaves and the developing flower heads, although it's too early for them just yet.  The Peterson Field Guide for edible wild plants say that they're a little bitter, but I found that compared to most wild greens they were pretty mild.  They also don't have that "planty" taste that many wild foods have.  I am aware that plants taste like plants because that is what they are,  but I'm talking about a flavor that makes your untried American taste buds ask your brain, "Hmmm, are you feeding me grass?  Because this salad taste like a mowed lawn. No? OK, just checking."

I chopped them up with some violet leaves and added them to some bulger I had made with carrots, raisins and a little cumin.  I just waited until the bulger was nice and hot and the carrots tender and added the greens on top and covered the pan.  That way they were just lightly steamed and kept their color.  Although I did notice that the leftovers sported a decidedly hunter green wild lettuce, but still, it tasted fine.  It was really nice to bring home dinner in this way again. I'm not sure what's next on the menu, I have to look at the calender, but I'm excited that our cold spring is finally starting to produce some lunch!

Sumacade

Every Year, starting in early spring, I can be found competing for the illustrious title of "Town Crazy Lady." You can see me in fields off the side of the road, cozzying up to old abandoned barns, or trekking into the over-growth behind parking lots in search of various wild edibles. This juice was made from last year's harvest of dehydrated Staghorn Sumac. Before you even get a chance to ask--no, it's not poison Sumac. Yes, I am sure. There is a big difference in the plants and it is pretty impossible to confuse, let me show you:

This is Staghorn Sumac. It is bright red, fuzzy and grows everywhere.

Above are pictures of poison sumac. It makes white berries that are in no way similar to the yummy staghorn sumac.

After the berries are soaked it makes a juice that taste a lot like pink lemonade. The berries (which are really fuzzy seeds) are high in vitamin C and tannic acid. So it's good for you too. I prefer to sweeten it a little, but it doesn't take a ton of sugar (or other sweetener) to make it drinkable. In fact, you can drink it unsweetened, but it's just a little tart for my taste.

Around here (Eastern Massachusetts) the "berries" are ready in late summer/early fall. You want to harvest them when the clusters are a deep red, but before any heavy rainfall has a chance to wash the flavor away. Russ Cohen, a local wild edible guru, says the way to tell if it's ripe is to lick your finger and shove it into a cluster. If it then tastes tart and tangy, it's ready. You will know if it's not ripe, it just won't taste like much. If you're in doubt, it's probably not ready.

Take about a dozen to 2 dozen clusters, depending on taste, and break them up into a bowl or pot, add about a gallon and a half of cold water. The water must be cold as hot water can leach out too much of the bitter tannic acid. I weight the sumac down with plates because they float and I like to be sure that they are submerged. From what I understand, this juice can now be ready in about 5 minutes. I however, like to let it soak over night. But to be honest with you, I'm not sure how much stronger this extra time makes the juice. I haven't done extensive experiments.


Once the berries have soaked (or five minutes or 12 hours, depending) you need to stain them through a cloth or old coffee machine filter. The clusters are hairy and it is pretty unpleasant to drink the hairs so you just want to be sure you've got them all. After that the juice is either ready to be consumed or sweetened and then consumed. I use about 1 cup of sugar dissolved in 2 cups mildly warm water to a gallon and half of strained sumac juice. That's really not a lot of sugar, and i feel like it just makes it's a little bit more delicious. And shouldn't everything be as delicious as it can be?

Over the summer I also canned black berry juice concentrate into jelly jars. I use one jar to about 7 cups of water and 1/2 a cup of sugar. I like to mix this juice with the sumacade. It gives it a juicier color and taste really really good. (You can see the color difference in the first photo. The juices on the left are pure sumac, the ones on the right are about 25-50% blackberry juice).

For the record both of my children (2 and 4) will happily drink either of these juices all day long. So they are kid approved.

So the recipe is:

12-24 Clusters of ripe sumac clusters broken up into
1.5 gallons of cold water, weighed down with a plate and left to steep overnight

Strain juice well

Dissolve 1 cup sugar into 2 cups warm water mix with sumac juice and enjoy!