Joshua Windus, reporter for The Americus Times-Recorder.

I’ve tried sumac lemonade before. Not the poisonous kind- but the shrub with red berries that appear in the fall. Its tricky making it, since the fall rains often wash the sticky, acidic-coated red berries clean. But if you gather the berry bunches before the rains drain them of flavor, you can put them into a cup and let them sit in the sunlight.

If you pack enough in, and leave them long enough, it makes for a pleasantly acidic drink, but a little tongue numbing without a fair mixture of woods honey stirred in. Its also good to strain it, because it will often have large number of bugs.

But it’s very good. I couldn’t convince any of my family to adopt it. My brother said he came in one day and heard me say “mm, it does taste like lemonade.” For some reason, this did not convince him.