The kitchen smells divine this am with sumac berries and oak caps simmering away on the stove for foraged inks!
Background: Last Feb./early March, I found a gorgeous head of sumac berries at my feet on a walk in my Dad's woods. So I lovingly and carefully brought it home with the intention of making ink with it at a later date ... Unfortunately, mice (or some other critter in my basement carried every last sumac berry away from my own stash. I had to wait for the new season ... As luck would have it, my workplace has an edge of greenery that includes Staghorn Sumac, with some heads at an easy level to reach. (They are all very tall in my Dad's woods, so I was glad to find one at my feet last March.)
I used Melissa Mary Jenkins recipe for Sumac Ink. I made some adjustments to the proportions due to the fact that I didn't have as much plant material as her recipe called for.
From 4 medium-sized seed heads, I got about 3/4 cup of sumac berries. Be careful breaking the berries away from the branches as there are sharp and picky barbs that hold the berries to the stalk.
I added an equal amount of vinegar to the simmering pot, along with 3/4 tsp. alum and let it bubble for 30 min.
It smelled light and citrus-y. Not quite lemon, but in that vein of sunlight and brightness.
I had to add a bit more vinegar after 20 minutes, because most of the liquid had simmered away by then. And then again ... No problem.
I did not let it sit overnight in the hopes of extracting even more color from the berries.
It came out with a nice red-brown color.
I did add some gum arabic to help it flow better as an ink, and a clove as preservative.
Now to play a bit with this ink:
Sumac Berries.
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