Of Weather, Windows, and Lemonless Lemonade

Foraging is similar to farming in that both forager and farmer live by the seasons and follow the weather. You will find them both with slightly furrowed brow, checking the forecast first thing in the morning, looking at the radar and tracking the projected path of systems across their region. They will be the ones to shush a conversation when the weather comes on the radio. Catching a weather report on the news will likely be one of the last things they do before going to bed at night. Their eyes are constantly turned to the sky observing cloud patterns and wind directions.
Almost all decisions are made based on the weather. There are tasks that can only happen when the sun shines (make hay, anyone?) and some things that never get done. I reserve housework and bookkeeping for rainy days. (You can imagine the state my home and books get into during a drought!) In the summer, all dishes sit in the sink until the sun goes down. I’m loathe to spend a moment more than I have to on indoor tasks when the weather is perfect for gathering.
In foraging and wildcrafting, timing is everything. Roots are gathered in the spring and fall, many greens are best in the early spring while they are still tender and sweet. Leaves and flowers for medicine are harvested mid-morning of a dry day, after the dew has evaporated, but before the sun gets too high for volatile oils to dissipate. At any given time there may well be a feast in the fields and forests, but if you don’t get your timing right you’ll end up with a tough, bitter, dry, wormy or even potentially toxic mouthful. Blech.
Each plant and indeed multiple parts of plants have their own season and weather window for when they are at their peak and perfect for harvesting. Sometimes that window is large and forgiving allowing for a long season of harvest that can last for weeks or months. Other windows are vanishingly small and narrow. A stretch of rainy days or a two day trip out of town and you are out of luck and waiting until next year before you have the chance to try again.

Source: Wiki Commons

The deliciously sour and tart berries of Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) have a surprisingly small harvest window. While it’s true that the bright red berries begin to ripen in mid-July and often persist long into the winter, the peak harvest time lasts a week or two at the most.
Gather them too early, before the berries have turned completely red and they will be dry and tasteless. Pick them after a day of steady rain and they will be washed out and tasteless. Leave it too long and little worms will move into the clusters and where there are worms, worm poo there will be. Around here I have found the best time to gather sumac is late July to early August. Yesterday morning I went out ahead of the rain to harvest, and it will likely be the last sumac of the year for me; the worms have begun to take up their residence.
Get your timing right and sumac is a wonderful, wild edible and medicinal plant to get to know. A prolific, pioneer shrub native to Northeastern North America, I love gathering, drying and using Staghorn sumac berries for medicine, in the kitchen as a seasoning and for making a sweet and sour drink often called Sumacade.
Sumacade is cooling, tart and thirst-quenching the way lemonade is, but, well, without the lemons. Rich in minerals, organic acids (especially malic and citric), antioxidant phenols, flavonols, tannins and anthocyans, the drink is as nutritive as it is refreshing.
Once you have collected your perfectly ripe, un-rained upon, worm-free clusters, making the drink is quite simple. Fill your chosen vessel with the clusters and cover with cool/room temperature water. Avoiding boiling hot water is key, as heat will extract too much of the tannins, which will result in a bitter unpleasant taste.

Allow the berries to soak for a few hours, even overnight.

The water will begin to change colour and turn orange-ish to reddish.

At that point you can strain it (I like to use a reusable, fine coffee filter), sweeten it (sugar, honey or maple syrup, which is my favourite), chill it and serve it! A reader wrote to me saying that his wife likes hers with gingerale. I supsect one could turn it into a very nice cocktail.

You can also turn your sumacade into a concentrate very easily by repeatedly soaking more clusters in the same liquid, resulting in a super sour concentrate that can be frozen and used later, diluted into a drink, or in the kitchen in place of vinegar or lemon juice. In Germany, sumac is called Essigbaum, meaning ‘vinegar tree’.
Depending on how much time and space I have, I will either freeze whole clusters or dry the berries by removing them with a fork and dehydrating them.
Now go and check the weather and ask yourself, “Is today a good day for gathering sumac?”  If it is, make haste, the window is closing!
*Caution: Those with severe allergies to cashews, mangoes, poison oak and poison ivy should avoid using sumac.