(gentle instrumental music)

- So they're gonna
be like lemonade?

- Mm-hm, it's gonna be kind
of tangy, kind of sweet

and it'll be kind of light pink

from the red color
of the berries.

- [Chloe] Ooh, light
pink, my favorite color.

(Nico laughs)

- My name is Nico Albert,
I'm a Cherokee Nation citizen

and I'm a chef here
in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Today, I'm taking my
step-daughter Chloe

to an urban wilderness area
and we're gonna go pick

some sumac to make
Indian lemonade.

It's incredibly important
to pass these recipes

and these food traditions
down to future generations.

Food is so strongly
tied to memory.

When you sit down at a table
and you eat certain foods,

you can remember those foods
that you ate as a child.

And these foods
that we're making

are memories from the
generations before us

and they'll carry on to
generations in the future.

(light-hearted percussive music)

I picked this wild
sumac today to make

what we call Indian
lemonade or sumac lemonade.

The Cherokee people
are originally from

the Eastern Woodlands area.

With the Trail of Tears, they
were removed to Oklahoma,

which at the time
was Indian territory.

They were put into a new land
where they were not finding

the same plants that
they were accustomed to.

But there are still
some similarities
in what you can find

in the wild here in Oklahoma,
one of those things is sumac.

So the outside of this berry,

has a red shell that has a
little bit of a fuzz on it,

and that has this really tangy
astringent kind of flavor.

And so when you
soak it with water,

it creates this beautiful,
tangy, refreshing drink.

(light-hearted percussive music)

(light-hearted percussive music)

(water splashing)

And I'm just sweetening this
with a little bit of honey.

And this'll take a
little bit of the edge

off the really tart flavor
that these berries add.

(spoon clanging)

(water burbles)

(water burbles)

(light-hearted percussive music)

And that's sumac lemonade.

(ice rattles)

Yeah, that's good.

Okay, here ya go.

Alright, cheers.

Sumac lemonade.

(Chloe giggles)

(light-hearted percussive music)