Cherokee Lemonade, Sumac Fruit

Sumac: Cherokee Lemonade (Rhus)

Family: Cashew (anacardiaceae)

Sumac is a common, well-known and easily recognized feature of the rural North American landscape. These small trees with thick twigs and an almost tropical appearance are familiar to most country dwellers. Their shape and large cone-like, dark red berry clusters are distinctive and their bright red autumn foliage is hard to forget. Yet few people know that these little trees have provided a delicious and refreshing summer drink throughout much of the world for thousands of years. In Oklahoma they are as common as cattle or cowboys, easily seen and found in autumn with blazing arrays of deep, dark crimson foliage .

Sumac "lemonade"

As previously mentioned, the red-berried true sumacs have been widely used to brew a tart and refreshing drink. This drink is delicious, easy to prepare, fun to gather, nutritious, unique-and free. Its source is easily accessible to millions of Americans every summer.

This beverage has been called sumac-ade, rhus-ade, sumac lemonade, Indian lemonade, sumac tea, Cherokee Lemonade etc. Whatever people call it, it's delicious. When made properly it is as universally liked as lemonade. I have personally brewed this beverage from staghorn, smooth, and shining sumacs on many occasions. Keep in mind that my experiences refer to these species in the South Central and other kinds might need to be treated a little differently.

Preparation of the beverage is simple. The first step is to harvest the berries. Sumac "berries" are really just seeds covered with a thin coating of flavoring substance and hairs. The large clusters are so easy to collect that in just a few moments you can have enough for a pitcher of wild Kool-Aid that kids will love. Just snap off the twig that bears the cluster by bending it quickly, although some people use pruning shears or a knife. You want to get the berries when they are dark red and fully mature, so that they have fully developed their tart flavor, but before the rain has had the opportunity to wash the flavor out. In most of North America, the first clusters are ready to be plucked sometime in July, with the prime time being in early August. Taste each cluster as you harvest to assure yourself that you are collecting something with flavor since occasionally they are bland. A dark purple coloration usually indicates that the flavor of the fruit has developed fully; yet some of the best clusters I've tasted were light pink. Sometimes a white, sticky substance coats the berry heads; this is pure essence of sumac flavor-don't let it scare you off. I pluck about six to eight average-sized clusters for a pitcher of sumac-ade.

A potential mistake is to harvest the berry heads before they are ripe, in which case they will produce an unpleasantly bitter brew. More commonly, the problem is that the berries are collected long after their flavor has been washed out by rain. Although I have found good-tasting berries into April, this is the exception; around here the vast majority of them are spent by the end of August. You can expect to find good ones, if you taste around, until early October and sometimes later-and there are always those with just a hint of flavor. To enjoy this refreshing summer beverage in the middle of winter, it pays to harvest the heads in prime time and dry them, so you don't have to worry about using mediocre material.

I take my half-dozen berry clusters, cram them into a pitcher, pour cold water over them, crush them up a little with my hand, and then let the pitcher sit in a cool place for a while. Pouring boiling or hot water over the berries makes for poor flavor, for it leaches tannin from the stems, causing the drink to become bitter. The longer the berries infuse, the stronger the drink will be. When the flavor is to your liking, just strain the drink through a cheesecloth to remove seeds and hairs. Sumac-ade is pleasantly tart with a light pink color. Some people add sugar, but I prefer it without.

The tartness of sumac is partly due to ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and malic acid, so one also has a health incentive to drink this beverage.

There are other things that can be done with sumac-ade. Sumac wine, one of the best wines that I have ever tasted from. How about a potent sumac concentrate by soaking four batches of berry heads in the same water, one after the other, for one-half hour each. This concentrate makes a wonderful and very tart jelly. The flavor is transformed and weakened somewhat by the boiling, so be sure to use a very strong sumac brew for the jelly.

Euell Gibbons recommended using sumac-ade instead of plain water to boil elderberry and other fruits that need a touch of tartness to liven them up for using in jam or jelly. Also, the young, thick, tender tips of sumac shoots (especially staghorn) in early summer can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. They are sweet and delicious, much like raspberry stalks.

Since sumac is related to cashews and mangoes, anyone allergic to those foods should avoid it, or proceed with extreme caution. All in all, however, the sumac is a wonderful tree, deserving of much more attention from those who love the outdoors. Unfortunately, the fact that it shares names with a tree of ill-repute has caused many to shun it. That does leave more for us, but either way there's plenty of sumac to go around. Why not try some this summer?

Comman Names: Staghorn Sumac, Lemonade Tree, Vinegar Tree, Smooth Sumac, Fragrant Sumac, Scarlet Sumac, Dwarf Sumac, Shining Sumac, Mountain Sumac, Velvet Sumac Hairy Sumac, Virginian Sumac, Winged Sumac.

Classification: Staghorn Sumac -(Rhus typhina).

Smooth Sumac or scarlet -(Rhus glabra).

Dwarf, shinning, winged or Mountain – (Rhus copallina).

Word Facts: The word sumac traces its etymology from Old French sumac (13th century), from Medieval Latin sumach, from Arabic summāq (سماق), from Syriac summāq - meaning "red."

The botanic name of Mediterranean Sumac comes from the Antic Roman tanner called « Coriarii » in Latin language.

Description: Sumac, also spelled sumach), is any one of approximately 250 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, especially in Africa and North American

Sumacs are rapidly growing shrubs and/or small trees that can reach a height of 1–10 meters (3.3–33 ft). It is one of the larger members of the Cashew family. Sumacs are easily identifiable due to their stout, velvet-covered twigs covered in a crimson lining of short fur like hairs which has been said to resemble deer antlers when still in velvet. Hence the name (Staghorn Sumac) ; It is also known and identified by the gummy white latex sap that flows from the stems when cut, instantly turning black on the knife blade, or staining fingers and pants when exposed to the oxygen rich air. The light green inner bark is slightly sweet when chewed.

Sumacs most often grow in small to large, yet often massive standing communities, arranged in more or less circular patterns. When massed together they form large bright crimson blotches on the landscape due to its autumnal dark, red leaved foliage topped by hand sized, equally red, fruited spikes. Easily seen from a great distance they add deep, beautiful colors to an otherwise often dull and drab fall landscape.

Left to their own device Sumac will form large patches called clones; what looks like many trees or shrubs is actually a single plant, like a patch of rhubarb or asparagus. Large clones are tallest in the center, getting gradually shorter towards the outside, creating the illusion of a gentle hill where there is none. In such a sumac clone the trees often have the habit of bearing leaves only at the canopy, so that when one ventures underneath he is struck with the impression of being under a gentle dome painstakingly coaxed into existence by some master gardener.

As a young lad camping in the deep, coldwatered wilderness of the Kiamachie Mountains in the Quachita National Forests, in South Eastern Oklahoma, where Boar, Cougar and Black Bear yet roamed, I was first introduced to the simple pleasures of Sumac Lemonade. In our Daily tromps through the woods seeking that pristine fishing hole, wild onions, grapes, sasafrass wood, wild bananna, Christmass Pine cones, firewood, kindeling, sparkeling crystals and forest treasures, my mother, quite unconcesiously, instilled in me a love for all things natural, all things Oklahoman, native and wild.

Fall Stand of Sumac

The leaves: are spirally arranged, usually pinnately compound, though some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. Fernlike, 14 to 24 inches long, are composed of 10 to 30 pointed leaflets, each as short as two or long as five inches. Throughout most of the year the leaves remain dark green and smooth above and slightly paler and often lightly haired beneath, yet darken to a vibrant, even brilliant crimson red in autumn.

The flowers: (one sex to each plant) The male flowers grow tiny and green in loosely stemmed clusters, panicles or spikes 5–30 centimeters (2.0–12 in) long. Female flowers, very small, greenish, creamy white or red, with five petals, grow in dense clusters, smaller than the male. They produce the compact groups of berries that appear much like upright clusters of tiny fur covered grapes.

Reddish Drupes

The Fruits: Form dense clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs. The dried drupes of some species are ground to produce a tangy purple spice, especially favored in Mediterranean Countries. The fruits, nutlike, hard, red, grow covered in thick red hairs rich with malic acid, the same ingredient that supplies tartness to grapes. Since malic acid is easily dissolved in water it makes sumac a natural choice for creating tangy, tart, thirst quenching, teas, drinks and tonics. “Note: also for this very reason be sure to collect your sumac before the fall rains wash away much of the fruits natural acids and flavors.” Some prefer the tartness of sumac to that of lemon or lime in teas and tonics.

Although the white fruited species with drooping fruit clusters, a relative of poison ivy and poison oak, can be harmful, all red fruiting varieties in North America are harmless, delicious and a great source for pink fall lemonades, with mint! The berries are rich in vitamin A and C.

The stems and rachis: of Staghorn Sumac are densely hairy, unlike the smooth stems of the similar and more widespread Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra).

Smooth or scarlet Sumac -(Rhus glabra). Is entirely smooth with a pale bluish or whitish bloom while dwarf, shinning, winged or Mountain Sumac -Rhus copallina, had odd wing like structures projecting from along the leave stems between the branches

The bark: is smooth, The satiny and infrequently streaked wood of the larger species, greenish to orange in color is often used commercially to form small decorative items such as picture frames and napkin rings.

Sumacs propagate: both by seed (spread by birds and other animals through their droppings), and by new shoots from rhizomes, forming large cloned colonies.

Edible Parts:

Red berries and berry clusters.

Flower Color: Female-tiny, greenish, creamy white or red

Male-greenish, creamy white or red.

Use: Fruits, Pink lemonade, refreshing tonic, Jelly, syrup, spice, condiment, medicine, dried flower arrangement, wool dye.

Leaves, smoking, tobacco substitute, leather tanning.

Wood: Ornamental, leather tanning.

Roots: Leather tanning.

Sumac Lemonade: Or Cherokee lemonade is just the thing for a hot summers day. In North America, the Smooth Sumac (R. glabra) and the Staghorn Sumac (R. typhina) are used to make this beverage termed "sumac-ade," "Indian lemonade" or "rhus juice". This drink is made by soaking the drupes or fruit clusters in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth and sweetening it. It can be served hot or cold as it also makes and excellent hot tea alone or mixed with your other favorites like mint, catnip or sassafras bark. The berries are best harvested for this in late summer and early fall.

Quite a few people assume that all sumacs are "poison sumac." Poison sumac, however, is distinctly different from the true sumacs and is, fortunately, less common. Anybody who tries to differentiate the two will have an easy time of it.

All of the true (edible) sumacs have dark reddish or purple fruit borne in erect, tight clusters. (On some of the western species, the clusters are small and may not be as tight as on the eastern species, but they are still distinctly red.) The surface of the fruit is fuzzy or grainy. The poison sumac Toxicodendron vernix is classified in a different genus (along with poison ivy and poison oak). This shrub, which causes reactions even more readily and severely than its better-known brethren, is confined to the east. It can be differentiated from true sumacs most readily by the fact that the berries are whitish, waxy, hairless, and hang in loose, grape-like clusters. They are quite unlike the berries of the edible sumacs. The leaf edges of poison sumac are smooth, while those of the edible eastern sumacs are toothed. Poison sumac also differs in that it rarely grows in dense, pure stands, and in that it inhabits swamps rather than dry areas.

I take a half-dozen berry clusters, place them into a pitcher, pour cold water over them, crush them up a little with my hand, and then let the pitcher sit in a cool place for a while. Pouring boiling or hot water over the berries makes for poor flavor, for it leaches tannin from the stems, causing the drink to become bitter. The longer the berries infuse, the stronger the drink will be. When the flavor is to your liking, just strain the drink through a cheesecloth to remove seeds and hairs. Sumac-ade is pleasantly tart with a light pink color. Some people add sugar, honey or mint, etc.

Some species, including the Fragrant Sumac (R. aromatica), the Littleleaf Sumac (R. microphylla), the Skunkbush Sumac (R. trilobata), the Smooth Sumac and the Staghorn Sumac are grown for ornamental use, either as the wild types or as cultivars.

In North America Rhus glabra is known for its use in the tanning industry and for its medicinal properties. Also in North America is the related Rhus toxicodendron (poison ivy) which can cause a severe skin reaction when touched.

Sumac belongs to the pyrogallic family. The leaves contain around 30 % of a tan which is the condensation of gallic, digallic acid with glucose.

The leaves of certain sumacs yield large amounts of tannin (mostly pyrogallol-type), a substance used in vegetable tanning. Notable sources include the leaves of R. coriaria, Chinese gall on R. chinensis, and wood and roots of R. pentaphylla. Leather tanned with sumac is flexible, light in weight, and light in color. One type of leather made with sumac tannins is morocco leather. With Chestnut, it is the only tan of industrialized countries origin. Sumac is one of the noblest and most ancient tanning material of the Mediterranean world. It was used by Egyptian and Greek during Antiquity as a wool dye and later as a tan extract. Cultivated in the Middle Age by Arabs in Palestine, this extract has made the glory and wealth of tanners producing genuine Morocco and Cordovan leather . Nowadays, Sumac is mainly used by tanneries producing high valuable furniture and bag items.

Extraction of Sumac’s tan is very particular compared to other vegetable extracts as it is very sensitive to heat (decomposition into gallic acid). It is the reason why only few manufacturers are able to offer a Sumac extract unaltered by oxidation with a concentration of tan from 56 to 62 % after spray drying. The impurities forwarded are free gallic acid, glucose, greenish dye (Chlorophyl), inorganic salt. All these compounds give interesting properties, except salt like iron oxide which has to be stripped out to avoid patchiness.

Compared to all other vegetable tans except Tara, Sumac has excellent light fastness certainly due to the strong anti-oxidation nature of gallic group. Apart from dye’s auxilialy, Sumac could be interesting in upholstery, automotive and articles which need to be light weight, thin and soft. It is commonly used for lining and bookbinding because of its excellent perspiration and light fastness. As all vegetable tan, Sumac enhances glazability and because of glucoside and antioxydation property of gallic acid, it prevents the grain side from cracking and improves the tear resistance of vegetable leather after ageing.

Winged Sumac

Native Americans: also used the leaves and drupes of the Smooth and Staghorn sumacs, combined with tobacco, in traditional smoking mixtures.

The berries of sumach (Rhus glabra) when dried, form an article of trade in Canada, known as sacacomi. This too is smoked as a substitute for tobacco and is said to antidote the habit.

The Western Indians make a preparation of equal parts of the roots, leaves and of tobacco, which they smoke under the name of Kinikah. "Sumack likewise grows there in great plenty; the leaf of which, gathered at Michaelmas when it turns red, is much esteemed by the native. They mix about an equal quantity of it with their tobacco, which causes it to smoke pleasantly. . . .

"An Indian carries pouch and pipe with him wherever he goes, for they are indispensable. For state occasions they may have an otter skin pouch or a beaver-pouch or one decorated with coral, made by the women. Sometimes they have a buffalo horn, from which a pouch, made possible of tanned dear-skin, depends. In the pouches they carry tobacco, fire materials, knife and pipe. Sumac is generally mixed with tobacco or sumac smoked without tobacco, for but few can stand smoking pure tobacco...The women...many of them though not all smoking tobacco." 1779 Zeisberger DELAWARE 115.

Another interesting account of sumach berries was cited in the Historical Dictionary,

1813: It has long been the practice among the natives of this continent, to substitute the sumach berry for tobacco, and the secret has been transmitted to Europe; in consequence of which it became so universally esteemed there by people of fashion and fortune, that large sums were offered to persons of mercantile professions, for this valuable but common production of nature. It has been preferred to the best-manufactured Virginia tobacco. The method to be pursued in preparing the sumach berry to a proper state for smoking is to procure it in the month of November, expose it some time to the open air, spread it very thin on canvas, and then dry it in an oven, one-third heated. After having completed the progress of the cure thus far, spread it again on canvas, as before; there let it remain 22 hours, when it will be perfectly fit for use.

In writing on the uses of sumach by the American Indians, Hunter says, "They consider it a principal article, next to tobacco, in the stores for the pipe; mixed with about an equal part of tobacco, it forms one of their most fashionable treats." The Tewa Indians dried the leaves and rolled them into cigarettes made of corn-husks or smoked them in pipes. It was also a favorite smoke of the Jicarilla Apache.

Both Native Americans and Colonists: likes this mildly acidic drink so much that they dread the small one seeded berries and stored them for winter. The fruit of the Staghorn is slightly less tart than other varieties.

Sumac was used as a treatment for half a dozen different ailments in medieval medicine, primarily in Islamic countries (where sumac was more readily available than in Europe). An 11th-century shipwreck off the coast of Rhodes, excavated by archeologists in the 1970s, contained commercial quantities of sumac drupes. These could have been intended for use as medicine, or as a culinary spice, or as a dye.

Some beekeepers use dried sumac bobs as a source of fuel for their smokers.

Dried sumac wood fluoresces under long-wave ultraviolet radiation, commonly known as black light.

Spice Description: The berries are dried and crushed to form a coarse purple-red powder. The whole fruit appears in dense clusters. Individual berries are small, round, 10 mm (1/4”) in diameter, russet colored and covered with hairs.
Bouquet: Slightly aromatic.
Flavour: Sour, fruity and astringent
Hotness Scale: 1

Preparation and Storage: The berries can be dried, ground and sprinkled into the cooking, or macerated in hot water and mashed to release their juice, the resulting liquid being used as one might use lemon juice. Ground sumac keeps well if kept away from light and air.

Culinary Uses: Sumac is used widely in cookery in Arabia, Turkey and the Levant, and especially in Lebanese cuisine. In these areas it is a major souring agent, used where other regions would employ lemon, tamarind or vinegar. It is rubbed on to kebabs before grilling and may be used in this way with fish or chicken. The juice extracted from sumac is popular in salad dressings and marinades and the powdered form is used in stews and vegetable and chicken casseroles. “The seed of Sumach eaten in sauces with meat, stoppeth all manner of fluxes of the belly...” (Gerard, 1597) A mixture of yogurt and sumac is often served with kebabs. Zather is a blend of sumac and thyme use to flavor labni, a cream cheese made from yogurt.

Attributed Medicinal Properties: The berries have diuretic properties, and are used in bowel complaints and for reducing fever. In the Middle East, a sour drink is made from them to relieve stomach upsets. Research has found sumac to have antimicrobial properties. Research further suggests that it may be used to treat and prevent hyperglycemia, diabetes and obesity due to hypoglycemic properties.

Recent research suggests that sumac has antioxidant properties. In one experiment, the drinking water of animals was supplemented with sumac, and it was found that there was less oxidized DNA bases in their colons, livers, lungs and lymphocytes.

Plant Description and Cultivation : A bushy shrub of the Anacardiaceae family, reaching to 3m (10 ft). It has light gray or reddish stems which exude a resin when cut. Young branches are hairy. The leaves are pinnate with up to eleven serrated elliptic leaflets, hairy on the underside. In autumn the leaves turn to a bright red. White flowers are followed by conical clusters of fruit, each enclosed in a reddish brown hairy covering. Easily propagated by seed, sumac grows best in poor soils. In Sicily, where it is widely cultivated and grows wild in the mountains, its quality is found to increase proportionately the higher it is sited.

Other Names:
Elm-leafed Sumac, Sicilian Sumac, Sumach, Sumak, Summak, Tanner’s Sumach
French: sumac
German: Sumach
Italian: sommacco
Spanish: zumaque
Arabic: sammak

Locations Found: Open, sunny, moist locations, pastures, meadows, orchard edges, along fences, roadside and streams. Sumacs require well-drained soil, and can thrive on dry sites. They are extremely intolerant of shade and are rarely found in any type of mature forest.

Flowers: June thru August

Avaliability: Fruit-Summer, Late summer, Fall and winter

Leaves, year round

Harvesting: Fruit-Summer, Late summer, Fall and winter

Leaves, year round. For cultivated leaves the harvest is made in Summer when the leaves start to be reddish. On one acre, 10,000 trees can grow, giving 800 Kg of dry leaves.

Nutrition Information: Fine source of Vitamins A, C.

Note:

Recipes:

Helpful websites:

Traditional Uses of Sumac in Authentic Cuisine:

*Middle Eastern cuisine - add a lemony taste to salads or meat
*Arab cuisine - a garnish on mezze dishes such as hummus and added to salads in the Levant
*Iranian (Persian and Kurdish) cuisine - added to rice or kebab

Tim Wilkinson