Nature Note #118: Sipping the Sumac Pt. I

As per my new year's resolution, I have chosen to go foraging more often this year and I haven't let myself down yet. While I've stuck to fairly easy uses such as leafy greens like dandelion (Taraxacum spp.) and lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album), berries like black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis), and my failed attempts to go after roots from the likes of evening primrose (Oenothera spp.) and burdock (Arctium spp.). Well today I decided to make a drink that I'v read about in many foraging guides, but hadn't tried until now.

Like many wild foods, it goes by several colloquialisms including sumac lemonade, sumac-ade, "Indian" lemonade,  and sumac berry tea. It is in fact an infusion of freshly picked staghorn sumac berries and cold water (made bold to emphasize importance) that is left to sit so that the berries can release their sweet and slightly sour taste. The comparison to lemonade is based largely on flavor, but the first time one gazes at the glass or pitcher containing the berries, it looks to be a right mess. Below, I've documented the process through pictures and am following the process detailed in Samuel Thayer's The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants.

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) along Route 27 in Wayland

It all started this afternoon when I was returning from Dick's and I spotted some ripe berry clusters near Sandy Burr Golf Course in Wayland. I pulled into the parking lot and picked five clusters. As I did so, I looked around and found no one watching. I wasn't worried about being asked about what I was doing, but I did think that to the average person, it did look at bit weird. After harvesting the berries, I headed home to prepare them for the next step.

Needless to say, I got immediate scrutiny from my mum whose only knowledge of the word "sumac" was to do with the one related to poison ivy and poison oak. It can be recognized by its shiny, more rounded leaves and its white berries that grow in hanging, grape-like clusters. Needless to say, that type of sumac looks entirely different from staghorn sumac which has a "spike" of red, fuzzy berries with a compound leaf that it divided up into individual leaflets. The berries ripen in the late summer and are best when they haven't been rained on frequently. Heavy rains can drive out the sweetness of the berries, making them less desirable for consumption.

The berry clusters I harvested were placed into a plastic pitcher and had cold water poured on them. I then smooshed and squashed the berries as much as possible to get them to release the flavor. After doing so, I was figuratively "red-handed". The cold water is vital to keep tannins from leaching into the water and thus rendering it horrible to drink. Allegedly, according to Mr. Thayer, some people have tried warm or even boiling water to steep the berries in only to get terrible results. After doing so, I placed the pitcher in the basement to sit overnight. I'm curious to see what comes of this and I will update on my findings tomorrow.