A while back I saw one of Rix’s blogs about making juice from sumac berries. I sort of forgot about it, but the flower cluster stuck in my head as an unusual looking thing. So when Penny and I rode our bikes around looking for herbs for her infusion, I happened to see some sumac. I asked Penny if we could use it to make something and she said yes. So we gathered a few of the heads, went home and read Rix’s blog again to see how to make the juice.
First you get a few of the flower/berries. They look like this:
Then you put them in a bowl or pot with cold water:
Then you mash them up with your hands:
The flowers/berries break away easily and you have a pinkish broth of flower/berries:
Then you sample the juice:
Than you filter it through a pink bandanna:
Than you drink it. Mmmm. Delicious pink lemonade tonic, high in vitamin C and also works as an astringent and anti-septic. Move over lemonade, Rhus Juice just owned you!
Thanks Rix for putting Sumac on my radar, and thanks Penny for helping me make the juice!
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8 responses to “Rhus Juice, the New Lemonade”
[…] While looking for items on the list we ran into other good things. For example in one park we collected some nice big logs for burn bowls from the hedge clippings and debris pile. In another park first I got some rosehips, then we found some stellar sumac berries to make rhus juice, and I finally found a horizonal bar so I could show Urban Scout my favorite childhood trick, the Windmill. This is something I’d been trying to show him since he came to Pennsylvania and it just wouldn’t work out. First off, most if not all of the great playgrounds of my youth have been destroyed and replaced with fucking ultra-safe, low to the ground, molded plastic and don’t include a simple gymnastics or pull-up bar (yes, I am bitter about this). Then I found us a park with bars and just as I am motioning for Scout to get out of the car, the police show up. I ask the cop if the park is closed and he says “Yes, I believe so…” Then he remembers he is in a position to abuse authority and quickly corrects himself, “Yeah. It’s closed.” We meant to come back the next day, during daylight, but we forgot. I fear my trick was a bit anti-climatic after all that build-up, but Scout assured me he was still impressed. […]
Hi Urban Scout, Hi Penny Scout,
Went for a morning walk in the local woods today with my dog and handed out bread here and there for the wildlife within.
Came across some Staghorn Sumac aka Rhus typhina, and thought:
Aha! Since I gave, I may take.
Just curious, why did mine turn out an apple juice colour and yours pink?
Might it lie within me using cheese cloth and you using a pink bandana?
No matter, it looks and tastes simply lovely.
Thank you.
whoa… make sure people know to stay far, far away from sumac with white berries. that stuff will mess you up.
also, it’s not good for folks allergic to nuts (especially little kids). they could be allergic to sumac as well.
yep.
Wow, just made some Rhus juice from a sumac that grows down the street. Thanks for the recipe! Mine turned out a bright pink as well. I’d put the closest comparison to lemonade & ice tea.
Yay, more sumac fans. I have loved this stuff ever since Billy Joe Tatum put it on my radar. I have to say, I never tried using fresh berries. I always dried them for two weeks in a pillowcase or paper bag (ala Billy Joe’s instructions.) I’ll have to try the fresh stuff now. Hmmm…. I see some growing by the parking lot at work.
Christine, the color does tend to vary a lot based on the species (smooth [R. glabra] vs. staghorn [R. typhina],) the time of year you harvest it, and how much rain has fallen since the berries reached maturity–not to mention that plants just vary from each other. I have had rhus juice come out everywhere between pink, ruby, apple juicy, and brown.
smock, quite right about the white berries. Here’s a good rhyme for remembering the difference:
Also, poison sumac tends to prefer wet, flooded, swampy soil, while the friendly sumacs prefer dry soil on hillsides.
You also make a good point about nut allergies, smock. Sumac belongs to the cashew family (Anacardiaceae) so its proteins could incite your immune system the same way cashews would. As with any new food (esp. wild ones that tend to have a higher nutrient density than commercial foods,) try it out in small “doses” first to see how your body reacts. If you have anaphylactic issues with cashews, you should probably stay away from sumac.
Luke, good comparison. The berries do have some tannin in them which adds to the ice tea-ness.
[…] Ask Penny #1: Part Four, Summer Summer is the season of fruits. The Iroquois gathered all of the fruits and berries they could eat and dried the rest to last them through the year. Their use of prescribed burns enhanced the berry crop. Strawberries ripen first, followed approximately by juneberries, raspberries, black raspberries, blueberries, and finally blackberries. Somewhere in that line up you’ll find the black cherry, choke cherry, thimbleberry, currant, elderberry and wild grape. Don’t forget the sumac. You’ll often find the velvety red sumac heads throughout the winter but it’s best to harvest them as soon as they ripen, when the concentration of “red stuff†is still strong and the bugs haven’t moved in. Lesser known fruits include those of the various viburnum species such hobblebush, wild raisin, and high bush cranberry which tend to ripen in the late summer and fall. Think of all these fruit sugars as fueling the high activity of long summer days, travel, gardening, building, hunting, sports, dancing, swimming… […]
[…] What else? Oh yeah, we made some Rhus Juice and did I mention you will find an article about me in the new (aug/sept) ReadyMade […]
I came upon this recipe while reading Euell Gibbons’s “Stalking the Wild Asparagus.” Euell is a naturalist of sorts who focuses on wild plants for food and spice. I would highly recommend reading the book for other useful plant information as well. I’d be surprised if Mr. Scout hasn’t already consulted the text.