The Many Uses for Sumac

 

After a long dry summer we are finally getting a few days of rain.  So before this evening's rain came in, I ran out and gathered up some staghorn sumac berries to make into seasoning.  Staghorn sumac is one member of the sumac family with some of the members being so much more famous.  Cashew, mango, pistachio, to name three nice members of the family.  Poison ivy and poison oak to name a couple of the not so nice members.  While there is a poison sumac that some people worry about when gathering sumac berries, it is usually pretty easy to tell the difference between them and edible sumacs.  Simply look out for white berries on a sumac bush and you'll be safe.  Not all white berries on sumac are poisonous, but that's still the best way to steer clear of the ones that are.

 

 

 

The staghorn sumac has compound leaves, meaning each leaf has many leaflets on it.  The leaflets are usually opposite of each other with a terminal leaflet at the end of the leaf.  With staghorn sumac the bushes are somewhat rough looking, which is what earned them the name 'staghorn'.  They are usually one of the first trees in fall for their leaves to turn and the are beautiful when they do.  They can start by turning gold before going to fire red or they can shoot right past the gold part and go straight to red from green.  They often grow in large stands and those stands can look like fire in the field in early autumn.

 

The berries don't really look like what most people think of as berries.  They look almost like a fuzzy torch on the top of the bush and are a deep reddish color.  When you touch them early enough in the season, or before they get too much rain on them, they feel fuzzy and some what sticky.  The sticky fuzzy part of the fruit is actually what you harvest when using it for a seasoning.  Sumac berries are different than other berries because their goodness is on the outside instead of the inside.  When you are gathering it take care not to rub off too much of the sticky fuzz because it has a wonderful taste of lemon. 

 

Most people use sumac for a refreshing, lemony tasting drink.  This is done by simply stripping as many berries as you can off each bunch and soaking them in cold water for an hour or so.  Do NOT use hot water as the inner part of the berries are high in tannins and are bitter.  Tannins take a long to time come out in cold water and usually the berries have been strained out before this happens.  Tannins come out very quickly in hot water however, and using hot water will make a bitter drink with a slight lemony taste.  Not what most people would find refreshing.  After an hour of soaking, taste the water to see if it has a lemon flavor.  It may need a bit longer to go but not much.  Then strain out the berries and sweeten as you would lemon aid. 

 

 

 

Another use for sumac and the main one I use it for is as a seasoning.  It makes a wonderful lemon flavored seasoning that can be sprinkled on yogurt or on top of fresh cakes (it will be a pretty red), or one of my favorites, in the cavity of the fresh fish of the day.  Mixed with dried pepper grass or shepherd's purse it makes a wonderful, wild lemon pepper.   I like it with thyme over roasted potatoes and even sprinkled over lightly basted eggs.  Any place where a lemon flavor sounds good to you is where sumac can be used.

 

 

To get that lemony goodness off the berries though you will need a blender or a food processor.  A blender with a bottom that can be taken off works the best, however.  Also you will need two bowls and a rubber spatula. Take the berries off of the bunch and drop them into the blender.  You are probably not going to get all the berries without getting the branch end into the blender so don't worry about getting them all off.   If you have a large amount of berries you are going to want to do this in batches or else you may lose some of the lemon fuzz when it sticks back onto the seeds instead of the sides of the blender. Maybe do no more than 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup at a time.

 

Once you have some berries in the blender do a few quick pulses on blend to stir the berries around.  Centrifugal force knocks the berries against the side of the blender where the sticky fuzz sticks.  The seeds drop down to the bottom of the blender when the pulsing stops.  If the bottom of your blender comes off, unscrew this over one bowl.  This is you seed bowl and you will be discarding this.  I recommend taking it back to where you got the sumac so that you can plant the seeds for the next generation of sumac.  Then, over the other bowl, scrape the sides of the blender with the rubber spatula.  The powdery flakes that fall into this is where all the flavor is.

 

 

                               

 

I put mine into a shaker to use whenever I need a quick burst of lemon flavor.  It's best to label your jar because you may begin to mix your sumac with other flavors to get you favorite herb combination.  Like I said, I like lemon pepper, but I also like lemon garlic as well.  Lemon salt can be made by mixing a little kosher salt into the batch.  Really, there is no end to the combinations you can make.  And the red color can make lots of food prettier too, and from what I hear, many people eat with their eyes before they eat with their mouths.  I'm more of an eat with my nose first, if it smells good, I'll probably eat it.  lol

 

               

 

I thought I would add this one last use for sumac as I gather it for this as well.  Sumac berries are not well loved by mites.  Making a "smudge wand" or simply drying the bunch of berries, lighting it and then blowing out the flame for the smoke can be waved over pet beds or children's hair to help make mites not want to be there.  It doesn't kill them just makes it uncomfortable for them.  I use it for working with bees.  The smoke doesn't seem to bother the bees (anymore than any smoke does) but the little mites that can harm a bee hive hate it.  They will leave the hive in mass to get away from it.  So I use sumac berries in my bee smokers when I am working with them.  I find it better than compressed dryer lint and anything to help keep the mites down is okay by me.

 

While I talked about staghorn sumac, that's because it's what we have here in Wisconsin.  There are many kinds of sumac all over and as long as you avoid the ones with the white berries you'll be fine to use them in this way.  Some of the white berry ones are even safe so if you plant a white berries sumac that you know is not poison sumac, give it a try.  Sumacs are nice to have round if only for that burst of color as the flowers of summer are fading into memory.  But why not work with it's lemon flavor as well.  A sprinkle of deep red lemon flavor is not only beautiful, but adds flavor to our lives as well.

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