Every year, along about mid-summer, I get anxious.
While farmers in the Midwest are worrying about their corn crop, I’m wondering if the sumac will be good this year and if I’ll get enough. Because if it isn’t, and if I don’t, well, then what? (And don’t say order sumac powder from Kalustyans because even though I could do that, I would feel the deep shame a forager feels when she has not adequately harvested an important crop. And besides, paying for sumac is like paying for, well, you know.)
Before you ask or warn me about sumac being poisonous, let me explain. Yes, there is such a thing as poison sumac, but it’s a pretty rare plant, growing primarily in wetlands. It’s also easy to differentiate between poison sumac and edible sumacs. Poison sumac has loose clusters of white berries that emerge from between the leaves. Edible sumac has red fruit borne in terminal clusters (i.e. only at the ends of branches). There are several types of edible sumac in the U.S. including smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), staghorn sumac (R. typhina), and three leaved sumac (R. trilobata). All produce red berries with varying degrees of sourness.
While some people eat the young shoots of sumac stems, I’m not impressed enough by the flavor to repeat the experience. I’m in it for the berries. The tart, red berries.
Sumac gets its lemony taste from a combination of acids that coat the fruit. These acids are washed away by rain, so gather your sumac as soon as possible after the berries ripen. The acids re-accumulate after each rain, but the berries become progressively less tart (and tasty) with each successive downpour.
Timing is key when it comes to harvesting sumac berries. Their color deepens before the flavor fully develops, so you can’t rely on a visual cue to know when to harvest. I start tasting sumac as soon as it’s bright red, monitoring its developing tartness. By mid-July I’m antsy. Hot, dry weather intensifies the sourness of sumac fruit, but every day I wait to harvest is a day when a torrential summer rain might wash away all that deliciousness.
Another reason not to wait too long is that large sumac cones (like those of smooth and staghorn sumac) are often colonized by caterpillars. Let’s just say this makes them substantially less appetizing.
When you can’t stand it any longer, harvest your sumac by cutting off whole cones where their stems join the branch. Cones can be dried by placing them in a paper bag and hanging them somewhere dark and dry for 2 – 4 weeks. Or, break apart the cones and dry them at 95F in your dehydrator. Dried sumac should last for a year or two in an airtight jar.
If you’ve ever tasted za’atar, you’ve probably tasted sumac. The Middle Eastern species of sumac, R. coriaria, is a primary ingredient in this popular spice blend. You can easily make your own with local sumac and a few favorite herbs, or use dried sumac alone to add a dash of tartness to any dish, like these sumac steamed buns.
Sumac-ade is a popular summer beverage among foragers. Break apart several cones of berries and soak them in two quarts of room temperature water until the liquid turns pink. You can speed up the process by stirring or shaking the container. Most foragers agree that cold brewing produces a tastier beverage. Boiling water can release bitter tannins in the sumac seeds, making the drink overly astringent.
Taste your sumac-ade periodically to test for sourness, then strain off the solids. You can run unsweetened sumac-ade (sugar will clog the machine) through a Sodastream if you don’t mind voiding your warranty. Or, if you have a soda siphon, you can carbonate sweetened sumac-ade. It makes a lovely cocktail mixer.
And speaking of cocktails, macerate sumac fruit in gin, rum, or vodka to create a foraged cocktail. Be sure to use a jelly bag, coffee filter, or cheesecloth to strain your sumac-infused spirit before using. You’ll want to remove the seeds, and if you’re using staghorn sumac, the hairs that coat the fruit.
Here in PA the sumac is bright red, but we’ve had a lot of rain. I taste the berries every day but they’re not nearly good enough to pick. Thunderstorms are predicted for Wednesday. I’m feeling a little anxious.
There’s a lovely Staghorn Sumac tree in my local area. It used to live in a garden, but the land use changed and now it’s essentially wild. I must go and check how ripe the berries are 🙂
I’m hoping for good sumac in Denver this week. It’s been much drier there than here in Santa Fe. Hope yours are super sour.
Do you separate the hairs from the seed to produce the spice, and if so, how do you do it? I find it most difficult. I tried putting it in a food processor to separate the seed from the enveloppe, and then passing through a sieve, but the sieve gets clogged by the oils… lot of work for little result. Thank you for your article.
I give the dried fruit a few pulses in a spice grinder, not to grind them fine, but just to break them up a little. Then I rub the pieces through a sieve, leaving the seeds behind. It’s tedious, but I’ve never had the sieve get clogged with oil. Did you dry the fruit first? What kind of sumac did you use?
Watching mine here in Oklahoma I can’t wait to try this! Thanks for the info!
In PA the fruit is starting to turn red but it’ll be at least a month before they’re ready!
Here in Minnesota we’ve had lots of rain this year. Our weekly monsoon went through three nights ago The next morning the berries were as bland as a piece of newsprint. Left alone for two days the lemony oils reasserted . I checked again last evening while walking the dog and the bright lemony flavour was present in good amounts again. This AM I walked back to the sumac bush and harvested a dehydrator full. The dehydrator is now running at 95° F with a timer set for 2 hours.
The starting weight of the sample berry stick is 50.9 grains. When it reaches 30 grains, which at 95°it will be 2 or so hours, it should be sufficiently dried. I’ll put the berries in my flour sifter and collect the dried husks and mix the berries into my bird seed feeder.
Hi John, I’m in NH this week and plan to check on the local sumac tomorrow morning. Do you work in a lab? You are able to take very precise measurements, which is why I’m asking. Whatever your answer, I’m glad you were so successful in your sumac harvest, despite the heavy rains in MN.
When putting the dry grains in the sifter, have you experienced the sifter getting clogged by oily hairs? How do you cope with that? I have a hard time doing it.
Thank you
Julie, I often have to rub the hairs through the sifter with my hands. A little extra pressure does the trick.
Thank you Ellen. I used a double sifter with shaking handle and it got so stuck! lol! I will change the sifter and do as you say. Thanks because I really like sumac but I got fed up with the sifter. I will try again.
A comment I forgot to include in my original post about sumac berries and the recent monsoon. The rain washed off the sticky coating on the berry stalk, from which the flavours develop, which causes the loss of the lemony pepper taste. When I walked through the area again and handled the berry stalks the slightly sticky coating was on my hand – which I licked and confirmed the return of the substance after two 80° F afternoons in our Minnesota sun.
I am not in a lab. I have various interests which warrants keeping several types of measuring devices at hand. Roasting coffee beans and measuring out ground coffee for my daily cups of enjoyment is one of them. Others include using bulk laundry and dishwasher powder amounts which replaces the prepackaged major brands with the water soluble plastic covering. Ditto dog food amounts.
I hope I have the same kind of good luck! It hasn’t been that warm here in NH, but fingers crossed!
Is it too late in the season to harvest the Sumac in Central Massachusetts?
Probably. There’s been a lot of rain (I have family in MA) so much of the flavor has probably been washed away. Plus there are the insects I mentioned in my post. But the best way to know for sure is to taste a berry or two and see if there’s enough flavor to make it worthwhile.
I dried sumac berris in my dehydrator and when I pulsed them in my spice grinder, the seeds ground up too! is it still edible? (this has never happened before)
It’s still safe, but you may find the flavor to be a little different, because the seeds can be bitter. Give it a taste and let me know what you think.
not bad, but a little annoyingly crunchy! thanks for the reassurance that it’s safe.
Wonderful article. Once a pod is harvested, how do you save the fresh berries for later use and hoe long will they keep?
Thanks
Hi Dj, In my post, here’s how I advise preserving sunmac berries: “Cones can be dried by placing them in a paper bag and hanging them somewhere dark and dry for 2 – 4 weeks. Or, break apart the cones and dry them at 95F in your dehydrator. Dried sumac should last for a year or two in an airtight jar.” If you want to use the berries fresh, you certainly may, but if you want to save them for later use, then you’ll need to dry or freeze them. I can’t tell you how long the berries will keep fresh, because I always harvest in bulk, then dry them to use throughout the year. If they’re bug-free, I’d expect they’d last at least a week in the refrigerator, but that’s just a guess.