Sassy Sassafras Tassies

I don't remember when my interest in wild foods began, but I know when it became an obsession.  When I took Will Endres' Wildcrafting class at Central Carolina Community College.  The class blew me away.  It opened me up to a whole new way of relating to the world, but it was the wild foods potluck at the end of the semester that changed the way I and everyone else in the class thought of wild foods forever.  We had talked about "Cherokee-aide" or pink lemonade being a drink that the American Indians made from sumac berries, which led me to the crazy idea that I would make a sumac meringue pie.  It was amazing.  Very similar to lemon meringue pie but with sumac's characteristic, pleasing astringency and a lovely mauve color.   Since then I have been on a mission to introduce people wild foods in very surprising ways.  I got the idea to make a dessert with sassafras a long time ago, but only recently finally got around to it.  My inspiration to make sassafras tassies was primarily one of consonance.  "Sassy tassies" just sounded good.   But then I thought about how good a whisper of root beer would be in a pecan pie and I knew I was on to something.   I absolutely loved the results.  I hope to have these soon at market, but first have to make sure Will's got the sassafras.