Well despite my best efforts and intentions, another one of my botanicals has suffered from this heat. My Smooth Sumac was doing great at the beginning of summer, but the crazy heat dome sitting atop of Oklahoma this year has dried them up. The leaves dried up first, then the berries started. Rather than turning the normal bright-red color at the end of summer, the berry clusters are all a dingy brown and lack flavor.
I was really hoping to salvage a few clusters at least, but nope. I actually tested a few berries from different clusters, hoping for the tartness and typical berry flavor, but they are all quite dull and dusty. As you can imagine, I am beyond frustrated with this summer’s heat! You can see in the background on this photo, the condition of my grass during late summer…dead, like the Sumac berries and so many other things.
Alas, not all hope is lost for my 1st year and 1st season of being open for business to the public. I was able to harvest many botanical herbs in the spring and first part of summer, so I have a good stock of those. In fact on Saturday, I actually made my very first sale, via Etsy. I shipped it out to Georgia today and was soooo very proud of myself! I don’t even have all of my botanical products listed on my site here or on Etsy, so I take it as win!
So needless to say, I will not be offering Sumac Berries this year either, along with Solomons Seal. ☹️ I do have a very limited amount of Sumac Leaves, both dried and as an extract, available that were harvested before the heat devastation. Now, let’s cross our fingers that the Goldenrod and Juniper produces nicely. 🤞
~ Ang ✌️♥️
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