August

Sumac, Blackberries

    August seems like a continuation of July, there are no significant markers to declare a new month, although a keen eye will note the subtle changes taking place on the land.  Hot and humid, with occasional thunderbursts is pretty much the weather forecast.  Pick-up trucks filled with sweet corn and melons appear on the street corners.  Early tomatoes begin to ripen, and the gardens are producing cucumbers, zucchinis and summer squash like mad.

     In the wild, the Sumac is a fiery red, the first reminder of the soon-coming Autumn.  Wildflowers abound anywhere the mower lets alone---Chicory and Queen-Anne’s Lace, Day Lilies and Black-Eyed Susans, a gay symphony of color, every blossom a miracle and a wonder.  Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as finely as each of these.  Later the Goldenrod and the Purple Asters speak of fall and the thrilling, dramatic displays yet to come.

    My wild harvest in August consists mainly of berries.  I’ve lost interest in the wild greens for now, being fully satiated.  The tender greens have matured and toughened or gone to seed by now, and my garden is yielding heavily.  August is primarily about Blackberries and Sumac, a lull and a resting place before the harvest crescendos in September. 

Sumac (Rhus spp.)

    Most people don’t notice the Sumac so much until early September when the leaves turn a stunning red and proclaim the glory of autumn.  I pay attention to them much sooner than that, sometime in early August, because this is when the Sumac berries ripen and are ready to harvest for Sumac lemonade.

     I have learned from teaching workshops on wild foods that people are afraid of Sumac because they have heard rumors about Poison Sumac, so they leave it alone entirely.  I have never yet seen Poison Sumac in all my years of foraging, though I hear it grows in swamps and bogs and has white berry clusters that droop down, far different from the bright red, upright berries of the classic Staghorn Sumac.

     Sumac is part of the Anacardiacae Family, which is rather diverse.  Among its distant cousins are mangoes, cashews, and pistachios!  Among its closer relations are Poison Ivy (Rhus radicans), as well as the many species of Sumach found in the U.S.   The most prominent member is the Staghorn Sumac, the posterchild of the Sumac family, tall and stately, sporting flaming berry clusters up to 10 inches tall.  When I lived in the Southwest, I was familiar with a Sumac relative known as Squawbush, whose berries were sparser but similarly red, fuzzy and tart.

    You don’t need to be a botany expert to identify and enjoy Sumac.  The key thing to know is that red Sumac berries are safe and edible, while white Sumac berries are always poisonous (even Poison Ivy has white berries).  So, if your Sumac is red, cast your fears and doubts aside and go shopping!

     Sumac is useful both as a food and a medicine.  I am aware that Native Americans used its bark, leaves and roots in many ways to treat all kinds of afflictions.  I have no personal experience using it medicinally but here’s a great link to check out if you’re interested: Katsi's Plants: Red Sumac

See also Little Flower's Medicine of North Amercian Plants

    I harvest the berry clusters in early to mid-August, mainly as a wild beverage ingredient.  It’s important to get the berries early, as soon as they turn red because there is a certain critter that moves into the clusterheads and knits a web-like nest throughout.  Later as the berries dry, the eggs hatch out and you’ll be harvesting lots of unappetizing larvae along with your berries. 

    It’s also a good idea to harvest before the thunderstorms of August wash and leach the acids out of the berries, thus diluting the very flavors you’re after.  Sumac harvested early yields a beautiful pink-rose colored lemonade, whereas a late fall harvest tends to be a more rust-brown color. 

    I use hand pruners to clip the berry clusters.  A pocket knife just won’t do.  I also make sure to bring a large basket as they fill it quickly.  Try to cut nice, bright healthy clusters.  If you see a web or a lot of insect activity, pass that one over. 

    Your hands will get slightly sticky from handling the clusters and if you lick your fingers you will taste a strikingly sour flavor, much sourer than lemons in my opinion.  This sour, lemony flavor in nature is always indicative of a  high vitamin C content as well as an acidic pH.   Acids in herbal medicine are useful to correct a number of common ailments.

    When I get home, I like to make a fresh batch of Sumac lemonade right away and then preserve the rest for my autumn wild food workshops and winter stores.

     To make fresh Sumac lemonade, my method is to put about 15-20 heads of Sumac into a large pot and cover them with one gallon of cold water.  Because the berries float,  I have to put a plate over the top of the clusters and weigh it down with a jar of water so that all the berries are submerged.  I always make Sumac lemonade with cold water for maximum vitamin C content and  I let them sit for several hours or overnight. 

     I have read accounts of people rubbing the berries with their hands while they are steeping to try to get the most flavor into the water, but when I tried this, the lemonade was rather bitter with the tannic acids that were released with this process.  Long steeping seems to extract plenty of the sour lemon taste without the bitterness.   One webpage I viewed tells about the Indians in Canada using a wringer washer to make large quantities of Sumac lemonade! 

    When it’s ready, I strain the lemonade through a cotton bandanna or some cheesecloth into a pitcher.  There are a lot of fine hairs on the berries (that’s why they are so fuzzy!) that would pass through a sieve, so it’s important to use a cloth to strain your lemonade.  I sweeten my lemonade with 2 cups of sugar per gallon of water.  I have tried using honey to sweeten it, but found I needed to use twice as much, and that the honey flavor dominated the beverage rather than enhanced the flavor of the Sumac, so I prefer to use sugar.  Oh well.

Sumac Lemonade

Sumac Soda

    To preserve Sumac for the winter, you can either freeze the berries or dry them.  My freezer gets so full by this time of year that I prefer to dry them for storage. 

    First you need to rub the berries off of the clusters.  You can just use your hands or try to figure out a tool that makes it go better.  A fork works pretty well to remove the berries.  Once they are off of the clusters, you can run them over a screen to sift out any debris and give them a cleaner look.

    To freeze them, simply put them in freezer bags and store in the freezer.  You might want to pre-measure them for lemonade at 8 cups per gallon.

   To dry them, you can rub them off the clusters first or dry whole heads of them.  I prefer to remove the berries first as they take up less space in the dehydrator. 

    It would seem there's not too much else you can do with Sumac beyond lemonade, but people can be quite ingenious.   In the Middle East they actually make a condiment out of dried, ground Sumac berries.  I’ve never tried grinding sumac berries into a powder like this, but it might be worth a try:

Sumac on the Table 

    This condiment is used in some fancy restaurants to make a Sumac Vinaigrette:

Star Chef's Picnics

    It’s possible to cook the Sumac lemonade down into a syrup, and I’ve actually seen it for sale before, or to make a concentrate that you can use as a wild lemon juice in recipes.

    And, of course, Jack Keller's website has a recipe for wine out of everything, including Sumac:

Sumac Wine

    Otherwise there’s a world of pharmaceutical preparations to explore in the Sumac, using the bark, root, leaves or berries………

    For more information on Sumac from other folks who have done a little experimenting with Sumac check out these links:

Sumac : The Wild Lemonade Berry

Living With Nature: Sumac Lemonade

Blackberries

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