Instructions: How to brew a refreshing, colorful drink from the wild.

Add the berries to the water and slosh them around for a few minutes. Strain the liquid in two or three layers of cloth to remove the tiny hairs, or, run it through a drip-type coffee filter. Add sugar to taste. The beverage can be served hot or cold. For an authentic American Indian drink, use maple sugar.

Comments: Both the scarlet and staghorn sumacs produce tight clusters of small red berries. Each berry is covered with tiny hairs containing malic acid. This tangy stuff tastes like lemon and makes a refreshing and colorful drink. Although sumac berries can be gathered even after winter sets in, they carry more flavor when they first mature in late summer or early fall.

CAUTION: All of these edible American sumacs have red berries. I repeat: RED BERRIES. The poison sumac, Toxicodendron vernon is a different genus entirely and has WHITE fruits or berries.

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