sumac in brookline?

[nomdeplume]

Let me know if you've seen it

[nomdeplume]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Butcherie did not have sumac. I ended up going to Christine's b/c I had another errand in Cambridge. But thanks to striperguy I now have a late summer Sunday activity. Any particular road side you would recommend?

[StriperGuy]

HUGE stand of it at the intersection of Market and soldiers field road heading towards the big martignettis. But once you start looking for it, it is everywhere.

[LindaWhit]

Try Penzey's in Arlington.

[Allston78]

The Butcherie on Harvard Ave. in Brookline has many spices imported from Israel, including sumac.

[StriperGuy]

Heck, you can pick better tastier fresher sumac by the side of the road all over New England. Most of the stuff I have seen in middle eastern stores is usually not that fresh. It is a little early in the year (best in late summer early fall, but there is a HUGE stand of it at the intersection of Market and soldiers field road heading towards the big martignettis.

Little known, it also makes a great herbal-tea-like fruity punch.

[Bob Dobalina]

Are we talking about the same thing? I am thinking of the red tart flaky stuff you put in your rice. How do you get the plant to turn into that?

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac

So I am eating the crushed berries...coool. How do I know whether the stuff beside Soldiers Field Road is the decorative or the edible variety?

[Taralli]

My family has been eating the fresh fuzzy red sumac berries for years. I expect you'd just dry & mill.

[StriperGuy]

Really is no dif between edible and ornamental. There is really only one variety that grows in NE and it is the tasty variety. To call them "berries" is a bit of a misnomer. There really sort of fuzzy tufty things:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Su...

The flavor of the locally picked stuff is much more vibrant, juicy, and zingy then the not so fresh store bought variety.

As I mentioned earlier they get mature and best in the fall.

Ideally, once they start to turn red (August or so) you hope for not too much rain, because rain will pound them and wash the flavor out. When they are good they are very deep reddish purple and very fuzzy. If they are pink and brownish looking the rain got the best of them.

[Taralli]

I'm sticking w/the berries: http://www.prairienet.org/herbsociety...

[Bob Dobalina]

Not in Brookline, but I recently bought a bag in one of the Watertown Middle Eastern markets. If there is a similar "mediterranean" market near you, that's where I'd look.