Sumac lemonade
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- Renie_Burghardt
- jerrib
- silvan
- kanawa
- silvan
- Red
- Renie_Burghardt
- silvan
- cmborris
- Carol Wallace
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» Renie_Burghardt - Staghorn Sumac
Hi Silvan, I love your first paragraph! And I happen to be very fond of sumac trees. They are actually quite attractive even before they turn a brilliant color, and have the berries perching upright in such an attractive fashion. The color of the leaves, with the grayish-green tint, look beautiful, especially when the sun hits them just right.Actually, the leaves, tree bark, and the berries are all quite useful medicinally, and I read that North American Indians chewed the root to cure mouth sores.
Sumac tea, or lemonade is quite good, and good for you. And at this time of the year, a row of sumac's at the edge of the woods, is a most delightful vision!
Thanks for featuring Chicken Dreams. I appreciate it, and as always, I appreciate your great article.
Renie
-- posted by Renie_Burghardt
» jerrib - Your writing is melodic
but I am still wondering - did you taste the tea and is it really good, Silvan?Loved your additions to this article, Renie. We do have a great community of writers here, and folks who don't read discussions are missing out, for sure.
Hope you're both enjoying your fall. Jerri
-- posted by jerrib
» silvan - delicious
Hi Renie and Jerri,Thanks for your comments. And yes, Jerri, I did crink this delicious concoction. It tastes just like lemonade, but without the pulp I find it a little cleaner and more refreshing. It also has an herbal tea quality to it.
Thanks for asking. Not including this in the article was an oversight.
With all the traffic this site gets, I would sure love it if more readers would contribute their ideas to these discussions.
Regards,
Van
-- posted by silvan
» kanawa - Hello
Thanks for the plug Van. Even after being up for a year here at Suite101 many people do not realize I am here. I am just really bad at promoting myself.I didn't know the part about the tannin and boiling. Never heard it before actually and I make sumac lemonaide every year. It is a big hit with the family. The hairs are a big pain to strain from the tea. I use several layers of cheese cloth or coffee filters to remove all the hairs. But the flavor is exceptional.
You can also collect and dry sumac berries to use during the winter months in tea cobinations. The flavor fades a bit so I only air dry the berries at their peek.
I am interested in finding out if the "juice" can be pressure canned so if you find any information that would be really interesting to me. I have frozen it in the past but being able to can it would be a great space saver for me.
Talk soon and again thanks for the plug.
Melana Hiatt
-- posted by kanawa
» silvan - tannins in sumac (and oaks)
I think I should print the warning from Edible Wild Fruits and Nuts of Canada; more information about this book is contained in my article."Sumac contains high quantities of tannic acid (see Warning in oaks section, p. 102). Use in moderation, and avoid prolonged boiling as this extracts more of the tannic acid."
Under oaks it says:
"Never eat bitter-tasting acorns in any quantity without first leaching until the bitterness has disappeared. Many cases of livestock poisoning and loss have been recorded in both North America and Europe as a result of consumption of raw acorns, especially those of the red oak group. Oak shoots and foliage are extremely poisonous, also due to tannin content. Tannins are widely found in plants, but are especially high in oaks. The medicinal use of tannins in the treatment of diarrhoea, hemorrhoids, and in the treatment of burns has been discontinued because the quantities absorbed were sufficient to cause damage to the liver. High intakes of tannin have also been implicated in some forms of cancer, For this reason one must be very careful about the identification of the oak species and the leaching procedures."
That very leaching process that gets tannins out of acorns, is what gets it into sumac tea. The book says sumac berries should be simmered "as short a time as possible" to get the correct dark-pink coloured juice for use in jellies and so on.
Tannic acid, commonly found in tree bark, is high in all parts of the sumac. So please use moderation in consuming any part of this plant.
Van Waffle
Editor
Living With Nature
-- posted by silvan
» Red - What an interesting...
article. I haven't been over lately. Life has been so hectic.My first husband's great-grandmother often used willow bark and black walnut bark for ailments and swelling. She was of Native ancestry and she knew exactly what she was doing. These remedies worked too but she warned me to never use tree bark internally unless someone with greater knowledge assisted me. Too bad she passed away at 99 years old before she taught family members what to do. I think she wanted those recipes to go with her to her grave. Sad that they were lost though.
I enjoyed reading your most recent series of articels. I am going to finish reading a couple of others I misses. Take care.
-- posted by Red
» Renie_Burghardt - But Oh So Lovely To Look At!
Hi Silvan, most people don't think much of sumac trees, but I like them. They have a special charm of their own, anytime of the year, but at this time of the year, they are stars! These are young sumacs at the edge of my woods. Hope you enjoy the picture! Hope this works.<img SRC="http://www.suite101.com/files/topics/470..."align=right>
-- posted by Renie_Burghardt
» Carol Wallace - I missed this first time around
I used to love the sumacs - they looked so tropical and exotic in the landscape. But they they started to take over to the point where I felt like I was spending half my time trying to keep the sumac population under control - and it's a losingbattle, even with the help of mother nature. She took out the ten largest ones in a tornado a couple years ago. And it was a very selective tornado. It didn't touch the gardens - the vines still lay across the arbor the way I wanted them to - even an empty plastic watering can stood on a table, untouched. The only thing out ofplace was that stand of sumacs. The other trees stood tall nearby.My husband and I took out the smaller ones - and yet at the moment we probably have 60 or 70 saplings out there waiting to stage another takeover.
I wish I'd known about sumac lemonade before - then it would have given me one reason to philosophically accept these rampant invaders. Just like I stopped minding the constant struggle to weed out the maple seedlings when we discovered that we could tap them and get maple syrup.
But at this point not one seedling is in an area where a tree would be acceptable - and so once again it's war.
-- posted by Carol Wallace
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