Wild Faux Pink Lemonade - No Lemons for the Steemint Culinary Challenge #14 - But still a winning drink!
I made this great pink lemonade and I didn't even have to buy anything from a store. Can you guess my secret?
I'll show my process in reverse. Let me know, in the comments below, when you figured out what my secret ingredient is. Have you ever foraged it and used it yourself? I really want to know!
I know that this drink doesn't meet the requirements for Steemit Culinary Challenge #14, but I couldn't help myself! There aren't any lemons at all in here, but the result is even better than using lemons -- the pink color is already built in! I was, of course, disqualified from the Steemit Culinary Challenge, but that's OK. I want to make the point that even if you don't have lemons, you can still make lemonade. Here goes!
Step 4. Make the Faux Pink Lemonade
I put some icicles in my glass. Where did I get them? From our big ice storm. I picked them off some rose petals and saved them in my freezer. I poured my lemonade over the icicles and added some spearmint. That's it! It tastes great!
Step 3. Strain and Sweeten My Secret Ingredient
I strain out the liquid into another container. I let that sit a couple minutes, so any tiny particles can settle out. Then I pour almost all the liquid back into my bowl.
Once I remove my secret ingredient, I need to sweeten up the liquid. It tastes like lemonade without any sweetener and is just as sour! I add about 1/3 cup of honey to a little of my liquid, and heat to dissolve the honey. Then I stir that mix back into the rest of the liquid,and put it in the refrigerator to cool.
Step 2. Soak My Secret Ingredient
I use a couple seedheads of my secret ingredient. I break off the smaller seedheads, so everything fits into a bowl. Then I cover them with boiling water and add a few spearmint leaves, too. I don't want the spearmint flavor to dominate, so a few is enough. I let all this sit until it cools.
Step 1. Forage and Preserve My Secret Ingredient
Have you figured out what my wild faux lemon is yet? It's the seedhead of Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra). Any of the red-seeded sumacs would work for this sorbet, including Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina), the Winged Sumac (R. copallinum), the Desert Sumac (R. microphylla), the Fragrant Sumac (R. aromatica), and even the Skunkbush Sumac (R. trilobata). They all can be used the same way, once you can identify them reliably.
Several months ago, I made a really detailed post about foraging and preserving sumac berries. But I was frustrated at its low earnings and the 30-day limit for people to leave comments. So I edited out most of the information. I don't do that anymore. I'll repost that article, if anyone is interested. Sumac is a worthwhile plant to know. And some kind or another grows in many parts of the world. Sumac is vastly underappreciated!
I know the key ingredient for Steemit Culinary Challenge 14 is lemons. But if you live in a cooler climate, you are more likely to have Sumac bushes near you. And they work just as good as a lemon for making a lot of great things to eat and drink - anywhere you would use lemon juice. I hope you can enjoy some sumac, too!
What Do You Think?
Did you figure out my secret ingredient? Have you ever used Sumac berries to make anything to eat? Do you have an Sumac bushes growing in your area? I would really like to know!
I write about foraging because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wilderness.
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** Haphazard Homestead **
*** foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land ***
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hello, i followed you over from youtube where i discovered you - you are so unique and your vids and posts share the exact info and way of explaining that i have been searching for. oh gosh, i am new to this site and need to figure out how to use it ... where oh where is more details on your sumac foraging??? i am HIGHLY interested!!!! we bought 10 acres of overgrown land and we have sumac which i harvested to attempt lemonade last year but when i opened my bag, there were lots of little buggies and i need to find better info on how to clean it before putting in water since you cant rinse because it would wash off the flavor?? thank you for all the wonderful information on amazing plants and foraging and i love your beers you match to your foods, too!!!! you create some amazing content!!!!!!!!!! and CATS, too!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE REPOST THE SUMAC ARTICLE I signed up here and this is my first post - that is how important your info is!!! plus, apologies on any errors.
Wow, that you for your nice words -- and I appreciate you making the effort to get on Steemit and leave me a comment! Steemit is more complicated than the average website, that's for sure! But it is like Facebook or YouTube, when they were just getting started. There's some interesting new technology underneath it all that is exciting to see develop.
I will repost the Sumac article later in the week. I may divide it into 2 parts to make it easier for people to read. And I'll be back on YouTube soon. I've got plenty of Sumac-related video, so expect to see some show up there! It sounds like you will have plenty of Sumac in your future, with your 10 acres. Happy foraging!
hmm... the only sumac I've ever heard of is poison sumac. I certainly would never want to forage or eat that - but I had no idea there are edible types. My new home is not so "foraging-friendly" but I'm hoping to be in a new place by this summer with lots of nature and its bounty. I'll definitely be searching through the foraging tag for more information.
They really are not hard to tell apart at all. Poison sumac, poison ivy, and poison oak all have white berries. And the seed cluster of an edible sumac is all at the end of a branch, not coming out from any other part. Here's a picture of poison ivy berries, so you can see their color, and how they don't come out at the end of a branch. Poison sumac has its seeds the same way. I hope you find some edible sumac sometime!
me too! I'm a huge fan of lemonade but you faux lemonade sounds wonderfully refreshing - and I love the fact that you can literally forage all of the ingredients. In addition to foraging, I have high hopes of saving enough for a FlowHive, and start a small aquaponics system. I cannot wait until the majority of my food comes from my back yard and not the grocery store!
It really is satisfying to eat from my yard and wild places. It sounds like you have a great plan for eating from your future yard, too! In the meantime, you can keep your eyes open for Sumac bushes! They are in Florida -- maybe closer than you think! : )
I never heard about those berries! This post was funny because I thought it would be something with Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass) and you gave us berries!! Ahah;) Does it taste lemon too?
It is just like regular lemonade! I know they are in Portugal -- I have seen them in travel photos. I think you have Rhus coriaria, the Sicilian sumac. They "berries" are really hard seeds, with little hairs on them. It's the hairs that are so sour.
Didn't know!! Yes, it seems we have this plant in Portugal. Now that you mentioned the name...I think I've seen it once when, but I would never recognize it easily, no way!
It looks tasty! Your recipe is much interesting! Thank you very much for sharing!
Thanks! I think you would like this drink, if you like lemonade!
Yes, I like lemonade and this drink looks really tasty! :)
:D
Very cool idea. We do have sumac in NJ, but it's been so long since Boy Scouts that I'd have to brush up and then go on a hunt for the non-poisonous variety.
Glad you enjoyed this. I bet you have some sumac in those woods you wander! They were in better shape before the winter rain and snow, though. I harvest mine in September or October, and hang the big seedheads to dry. I use them pretty regularly -- way more than lemons, lol!
Will be on the lookout for them this year!
I bet you will see them in a lot of places, once you start noticing them. I'll probably repost my original sumac article. That might help you out. They are one of the easy foraging plants to recognize!
Wow, that looks good. Cant' say as I've ever made this, but thanks for the know how now on making Sumonade. I like the multiple photos as well, and the reverse direction 'how to'. Very clever and creative. Now I just have to find a Sumac bush/tree I can identify.
Sumac-ade is another name for this -- your Sumonade is pretty good, too! I'm glad to hear you could follow my backward's directions. I bet you have Sumac bushes pretty close. They are often used as landscaping shrubs in neighborhoods and parks, too!
looks good, I've never eaten sumac. We actually had some trees near my childhood home.
They really are worth trying, if you like lemonade. I harvest and preserve a lot of them every fall, and use them regularly all year long. It's great that you had some around you, so you are familiar with them!
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