I published an alternate recipe for this drink last summer. This is a bit simpler, and I was surprised to discover there are a few stands of staghorn sumac that still have tasty berries that can be used. But as is noted at the end, you can also use juice, ginger infusion, or other drinks to make this carbonated beverage.

My foraging friend has many more years of experience than I do with making wine and other fermented beverages. He made this soda a week ago, and I was surprised at the robust flavor and how well the sumac taste did, since we picked it in January! By the time I tasted it it had a slight alcoholic tinge to it. That can happen. I tried a similar recipe with blueberry juice I made, and when it failed I set it aside to deal with later. By the time I had gotten back to it I had made a fruity wine that was actually very pleasant. The crossover from juice to soda to wine and then vinegar is interesting, and you don't always end up with what you expected.

I asked my friend to share his recipe.

Linda Diane has asked me for the recipe for Sumac Soda. Not being one who measures anything, this is understandably difficult. Here goes. You'll need a bail type bottle. Some beers and old fashioned root beer come in them. These bottles won't explode. If the pressure gets too high, the extra CO2 pushes the cap up and leaks out.

For one bottle (multiply for your bottles, or for one larger bottle)

In a bowl, combine:
1 1/2 C room temperature tap water
About half a head of sumac
Gently knead for a minute.
Strain out the berries and hairs and dead bugs.

Add and blend
1/4 C sugar or other sweetener.

Taste it. It should taste like a nice refreshing sample of lemonade. Adjust ingredients to your liking. This is sumacade and is delicious as is.

To turn sumacade into sumac soda: Add 1/4 tsp bread yeast, and allow to sit for a few minutes for the yeast to dissolve and activate. Stir.

Pour the sumacade into the bail bottle. Seal. Let it sit at room temperature for a day or two. Gently lift the bail slightly. There should be good pressure. If so, refrigerate and enjoy!

Open gently over a small bowl. They sometimes froth exuberantly.

Substitute lemon, lime, black raspberry, ginger root (steep an infusion, then strain) or other flavors.

*****

Thanks to my foraging friend!

Other recipes I encountered on the internet called for boiling the juice for 20-30 minutes before sweetening and then cooling before adding the yeast. I assume this is a sort of pasteurization so that there are no wild strains of yeast or bacteria. I like the wild card of adding possible wild yeasts, so I don't heat it. And sumac tastes far better made cold, the heat makes it bitter and with an off taste. It is a controversial subject. Should we be pasteurizing everything including milk and almonds, juice and cider? The important thing is that we have the choice.

If you want to make ginger soda, simmer about two inches of chopped ginger root in a quart of water, with a lid. Add about 1/4 cup sweetener, more or less to taste. Once it is cool follow the above directions.

Linda Diane Feldt is a Holistic Health Practitioner, writer and teacher now in her 30th year of private practice. You can follow her on twitter.com/wildcrafting or at www.holisticwisdom.org