Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Sumac.

What We Had Last Night;
Boiled Red Potatoes Fried Up in the Skillet with Oregano From Our Backyard (and lots of olive oil and some salt)
Easy Macaroni and "Cheeze"

This is sumac. I got it from my in-laws yard (thereby eliminating the risk of it's being sprayed with chemicals). Those hairs? The red stuff? Is malic acid, which is very tart. It dissolves in water. If my neighbor lets me pick some elderberries out of her hedge, I'm going to try my hand at Elderberry Sumac Jam.

See, the original idea was to make sumac, the spice, but I just can't figure out how to get those little hairs off of the seeds!! Maybe if I tumbled them about in a sealed container with some rock salt?!? But then there's all this other stuff you can't see tucked in between the branches and the stem, this brown stuff? That I don't think you're supposed to eat? I'm stumped.
So I'm going to make jam. Apparently, you can also make lemonade.
Isn't it pretty?