Affiliate disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our Privacy Policy.
Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is one of the most distinctive wild edibles in eastern North America, with bright red, fuzzy seed clusters that look like nothing else growing in our hedgerows and old fields. Learn how to identify staghorn sumac, distinguish it clearly from poison sumac and other look-alikes, and use the tart lemony drupes to make sumac-ade, spice, and traditional herbal preparations.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Homestead
- What Is Staghorn Sumac?
- Is Staghorn Sumac Edible?
- Staghorn Sumac Medicinal Benefits
- Where to Find Staghorn Sumac
- When to Find Staghorn Sumac
- How to Identify Staghorn Sumac
- Staghorn Sumac Look-Alikes
- How to Harvest Staghorn Sumac
- Ways to Use Staghorn Sumac
- Staghorn Sumac FAQs
- Wild Fruit Foraging Guides
Staghorn sumac grows just about anywhere and everywhere all across the eastern part of North America. All it needs is an abandoned field, highway median, or roadside ditch and it’s happy as can be. There’s nothing like a tasty plant that just loves to grow in just about anywhere; it’s a forager’s dream.
Everyone has their gateway plant into foraging, and more often than not it’s something like fresh dandelions on the lawn or a sweet patch of wild chanterelles happened upon in the woods. Mine’s a bit different. For me, sumac changed everything.
I’d been into herbal medicine since my early teens, but I never really considered myself a forager. At one point I found myself reading a herbal manual, learning about some of the medicinal plants traditionally used by Native peoples in the northeast. I came across a description of a plant with bright red, hairy fruit that grows upright in a pyramidal shape. It said they were just about everywhere in Vermont, but to the best of my knowledge, I’d never seen any hairy red fruits.
Of course, no pictures in the manual didn’t help. How on earth hadn’t I noticed sumac, if it does indeed grow everywhere? I kept my eyes peeled for over a year, hoping to spot a hairy red fruit, but no luck.
Then something magic happened. I was pulling out of the parking lot at work, right after I’d given my 2 weeks notice because we were moving to our dream homestead off the grid. At one edge I saw this strange-looking plant and, realizing I had nowhere to be in that strange lame-duck period before you actually finish at a job, I stopped and got out to look. I examined it and found these strange upright clusters of bright red fuzzy seeds. They were beautiful. What on earth could they be?
And then it hit me all at once. The plant I’d been looking for all year had been growing not 50 feet from where I’d parked my car every day for the past 5 years. Sometimes all you have to do is open your eyes, and take the time to stop and really look, and there you find what you’ve been searching for.
Notes from My Homestead
Years after that first sumac discovery, I now have stands of staghorn sumac growing in three different spots on our Vermont homestead, and I notice them everywhere I drive in our part of the state. Late summer is sumac harvest time around here, and I usually go out in late August or early September with a bucket and a pair of pruners, snipping the fattest, brightest red drupes off the ones at the back of our pasture line. The kids have learned that sumac is the wild plant we taste-test by rubbing the fuzz on our fingers and licking it; the bright lemony pop never fails to surprise visitors who don’t know what they’re in for.
Most of our harvest goes into a big jar of sumac-ade, which we sip cold through September. Whatever’s left gets dried and processed into sumac spice for winter, where it stands in for lemon zest in everything from roasted chicken to popcorn. The plant has more than earned its place at the top of my “must-forage” list every year, partly for the flavor and partly for the way it bridges the gap between summer berry season and the fall apple harvest.
What Is Staghorn Sumac?
Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae). It typically grows 15 to 25 feet tall, occasionally reaching 35 feet or more, and forms thicket-like colonies through underground rhizomes that send up new shoots from the parent plant.
The common name comes from the velvety, reddish-brown hairs that cover the young branches, much like the velvet that covers the antlers of male deer (stags) in spring. Other common names include velvet sumac, hairy sumac, and Virginia sumac.
Staghorn sumac is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers grow on separate plants. Only the female plants produce the distinctive cone-shaped clusters of fuzzy red drupes that foragers harvest. If you have a stand of sumac and only some of the trees produce drupes, that’s why; the rest are male.
Is Staghorn Sumac Edible?
Staghorn sumac is fully edible, and the bright red drupes have a lemony, tart, slightly fruity flavor that’s been used as a culinary spice and beverage base for centuries. The same is true of its close relatives, smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) and winged sumac (Rhus copallinum), which can be used interchangeably with staghorn in any recipe.
The flavor lives in the red velvety coating on the outside of the drupes, not in the seed itself. The seeds are hard and woody and aren’t typically eaten; the standard preparation method is to extract the lemony flavor with cold water, or to grind the dried drupes and sift out the seeds for a tangy red spice powder.
Staghorn sumac is also a notable source of vitamin C, which is part of why it was traditionally used by Native peoples for sore throats, coughs, and as a winter source of vitamins when fresh fruit was scarce. It pairs naturally with other northern wild edibles like pine needle tea as a foraged source of vitamin C through the cold months.
The young spring shoots of staghorn sumac are also edible. Foraging author Samuel Thayer describes harvesting the young peeled shoots as a child and eating them raw; he found them sweet and fruit-like, more like a wild fruit than a vegetable. The harvest window for shoots is narrow (late spring to very early summer, before the bark turns woody), and the leaves and outer bark have to be peeled off first.
One important caution: people with cashew or mango allergies should approach sumac carefully. Staghorn sumac is in the same plant family (Anacardiaceae) as those species, and rare cross-reactions are possible. If you’ve reacted to cashews or mangoes in the past, taste a small amount before adding sumac to your repertoire.
Staghorn Sumac Medicinal Benefits
Staghorn sumac has a long history of use in traditional Native American medicine across its range. The Iroquois, Ojibwa, and several other tribes used decoctions of the bark, leaves, and berries for sore throats, fevers, mouth sores, and as a general wash for skin irritations. Some traditions also used the dried, powdered drupes as a styptic to help slow bleeding from minor cuts.
Modern research has begun to validate some of these traditional uses. Sumac extracts contain a high concentration of polyphenols, tannins, and gallic acid, all of which contribute to documented antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory studies. Sumac is also a notable source of vitamin C, which historically supported its use as a winter scurvy preventive in northern climates.
For home use, the most common preparations are sumac-ade (cold water infusion of the fresh drupes) for vitamin C and gentle digestive support, and sumac spice (dried, ground drupes) for daily culinary use. As with any wild herbal, consult a qualified herbalist or healthcare provider before using sumac medicinally if you’re pregnant, nursing, taking medications, or have an existing health condition.
Where to Find Staghorn Sumac
Staghorn sumac is native to eastern North America, ranging from southeastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes) south through New England and the mid-Atlantic, west to the eastern Great Plains, and south through the Appalachians to Georgia and Alabama. It’s also been planted as an ornamental across most of the temperate world and has naturalized in parts of Europe and northern Asia.
Sumac is a sun-loving pioneer species that thrives in disturbed soils. Look for it in:
- Abandoned fields and old pastures
- Highway medians, roadside ditches, and railroad cuts
- Forest edges and hedgerows
- Rocky outcrops, gravel pits, and dry slopes
- Older cemeteries and the perimeters of farm fields
Staghorn sumac doesn’t grow in deep shade, deep swamp, or wet bottomland; if you’re seeing a similar-looking plant in those habitats, it’s worth confirming the identification, since poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) does grow in swamps and wetlands. More on that distinction below.
Avoid harvesting from busy roadsides and any area near industrial sites, since sumac picks up petroleum residue and heavy metals from contaminated soils. The cleanest harvests come from rural roadsides, organic farm edges, and old pasture lines well away from sprayed crops.
When to Find Staghorn Sumac
Once the seed pods ripen, staghorn sumac persists all throughout the winter. That means it can be foraged at almost any time throughout the year, assuming you can find seed pods in good condition. Depending on the weather and the exact site, the pods may degrade or discolor.
The drupes ripen in late summer (typically late July through September across most of the species’ range), and that’s when the flavor is at its peak. The first hard rains of fall start to wash some of the lemony coating off the drupes, so most foragers prefer to harvest before any prolonged wet stretch. Late summer through early autumn is the sweet spot.
Often the pods become infested with worms in the center too, so the older the pods the more likely they’ve got someone living inside. For the most part that’s not a huge issue if you just strip off the clean-ish seeds on the outside and discard the wormy center of the seed pod.
As the pods age, they begin to lose their flavor. The rain washes them out a bit and they’re not as potent or tasty. By late summer, flavors are waning, but they’re often still great in some locations into October or November.
Nonetheless, they’re one of the wild edibles that can be foraged all winter long if you choose. Even when it’s -20°F here in a Vermont January, there’s still sumac aplenty, much of it still bright and almost as good as new.
The only time it’s tricky to harvest staghorn sumac is in the late spring, when the old pods have begun to degrade and the new ones are still too green to harvest. You’ll often see the last remnants of last year’s pods picked over by the early spring birds. Generally, birds don’t go in for sumac, but early spring arrivals are less picky.
While spring may be a dry time for sumac pods, the shoots are edible! According to Samuel Thayer’s The Forager’s Harvest, the new shoots in late spring and early summer are sweet, fruit-like, and best eaten raw after the leaves and bitter outer bark have been peeled off. The shoot harvest window is narrow, but the flavor is genuinely worth catching.
How to Identify Staghorn Sumac
One of the reasons I had such a hard time finding staghorn sumac is that all the descriptions I read of the plant’s fruit and growth habit were absolutely useless. By some definition, it does have bright red “fruit” covered in fuzz, but more practically speaking the “fruits” are just clusters of seeds. Think of it more like the seedhead on millet or sorghum, but tightly packed and tapering to a point at the top.
Botanically, the bright red clusters are technically drupes (a type of fruit with a hard pit, like a cherry or olive), but they’re so tiny and seed-like that “fuzzy red seed cluster” describes them better in practice. The fuzzy outer coating is where all the lemony flavor lives.
Staghorn Sumac Growth Habit
Sumac grows in colonies, with the older trees in the center as the tallest and gradually shorter trees and shrubs radiating out. They’re usually somewhere between 8 and 20 feet tall, occasionally reaching 30 feet or more in good growing conditions. The colony forms by underground rhizomes sending up new shoots, so a single sumac can become a large clonal patch over the course of a decade or two.
Mature stands have a distinctive flat-topped or rounded canopy and a crooked, twisted growth pattern that’s easy to spot in winter against the sky.
Staghorn Sumac Leaves
The leaf stalks reaching out from the main branches are large, around 2 feet long, with individual leaves coming out in matched pairs all the way down the stalk. In botany speak, the leaves are pinnately compound, with each leaflet lanceolate and serrated.
A single compound leaf usually has 13 to 27 individual leaflets, each 2 to 5 inches long, with bright green tops and paler undersides. The serrated edges are an important identification characteristic and one of the easiest ways to distinguish staghorn sumac from poison sumac (which has smooth, untoothed leaflets).
In autumn, the leaves turn brilliant shades of orange, red, and burgundy. The fall color combined with the persistent red drupes is one of the most striking displays in the eastern fall landscape.
Staghorn Sumac Stems and Branches
The young stems and branches are covered in a dense coat of soft, reddish-brown hairs, which is where the name “staghorn” comes from; the velvety hairs look exactly like the velvet on a young deer’s antlers in spring. Older bark turns smooth, gray-brown, and develops shallow vertical fissures with age.
If you snap a fresh twig, it produces a milky, sticky white sap. This sap distinguishes sumacs (genus Rhus) from many other compound-leaved plants and is a useful confirmation when you’re learning the species.
Staghorn Sumac Flowers
The flowers appear in late spring or early summer (typically June in most of the range) as dense pyramidal clusters of tiny greenish-yellow flowers at the tips of branches. They’re quite different in appearance from the showy red drupes that follow; if you only know sumac from its fall color, the flowers may not look like the same plant at all.
Because staghorn sumac is dioecious, male flowers (which release pollen but never form drupes) and female flowers (which become the red drupe clusters) appear on separate plants. Both flower types are visited heavily by bees, and a stand of male sumacs in full bloom is a remarkable pollinator resource in early summer.
Staghorn Sumac Drupes (Fruit)
The seed pods come out of the top of branches and usually point upward towards the sky. In the early spring, the immature seedheads are green until they slowly develop a pinkish tinge that spreads and gradually turns to a bright velvet red.
Each pod is a tightly packed cluster of small, round drupes covered in fuzzy red hairs. The hairs aren’t really hairs in the usual sense; they’re tiny fibers covered in a sticky resin-like substance that holds the lemony flavor. When you hold a sumac drupe cluster, the fuzz will gently brush off and the aromatic oils will stick to your hands.
The drupes are upright, in tight pyramidal or cone-shaped clusters at the top of branches. This is one of the most diagnostic features of staghorn sumac and the closely related smooth and winged sumacs; the upright cone-shape is impossible to miss once you’ve seen it. Poison sumac, by contrast, has loose hanging clusters of pale green or whitish drupes (more on this in the look-alikes section).
Staghorn Sumac Look-Alikes
The most important look-alike to learn is poison sumac, which is genuinely toxic and shouldn’t be touched. The other “look-alikes” share a name and family but are themselves edible, so confusion among the edible sumacs isn’t a safety problem. Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), an invasive non-sumac, is also sometimes confused with staghorn sumac and worth a quick mention.
Poison Sumac vs. Staghorn Sumac
Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is considered a “look-alike” though really they’re only alike in name if you’re paying any attention. They’re not even in the same genus; poison sumac is in Toxicodendron (the same genus as poison ivy and poison oak), while staghorn sumac is in Rhus. The two plants are easy to tell apart on close inspection.
- Drupes / berries: Poison sumac produces hanging clusters of pale green to whitish drupes, much like grapes hanging from a stem. Staghorn sumac produces upright cone-shaped clusters of bright red, fuzzy drupes. The two never look alike at fruiting time.
- Leaves: Poison sumac has smooth-edged (untoothed) leaflets that are hairless and shiny. Staghorn sumac has clearly serrated (toothed) leaflets, and the young stems and leaf stalks are densely fuzzy.
- Stems: Poison sumac has smooth, hairless stems and branches. Staghorn sumac has the distinctive velvety reddish-brown hairs on its young branches.
- Habitat: Poison sumac grows almost exclusively in swamps, bogs, and very wet bottomland. Staghorn sumac grows in the opposite habitat: dry, sunny, well-drained soils in old fields, roadsides, and forest edges. If you’re standing in a swamp looking at a sumac, it’s probably poison sumac. If you’re standing on a sunny roadside, it’s probably staghorn (or smooth) sumac.
- Growth habit: Poison sumac is more often a small tree with an open, spreading form, and rarely grows in dense, pure stands. Staghorn sumac forms thicket-like clonal colonies in dense stands.
If you do manage to somehow mistake poison sumac for staghorn sumac, you’ll be sorry. Poison sumac causes skin reactions much worse than poison ivy or poison oak, and the urushiol compound responsible for the reaction is present in all parts of the plant year-round, including dried leaves and twigs in winter. The good news is that the plants don’t really look alike at all once you know what to look for, and they don’t grow in the same habitats.
Smooth Sumac
Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) is the closest cousin to staghorn sumac and the most common edible sumac in much of the central and western US. The two species are nearly identical in their drupes, growth habit, and culinary uses, and you can use them interchangeably in any sumac-ade or spice recipe. The main differences:
- Smooth sumac has smooth, hairless stems and twigs (where staghorn sumac is fuzzy).
- The leaflets and the drupe clusters are also less hairy on smooth sumac.
- Smooth sumac is generally a smaller plant, topping out around 10 to 15 feet rather than 20 to 30 feet.
- Smooth sumac extends further west across the Great Plains than staghorn sumac, which is more concentrated in the eastern half of North America.
The two species frequently grow side by side, and they hybridize where their ranges overlap, producing intermediate forms. From a foraging standpoint, you don’t need to distinguish them; both are edible and both have the same lemony flavor in their drupes.
Winged Sumac (Shining Sumac)
Winged Sumac or Shining Sumac (Rhus copallinum) is a more southern species, common from Pennsylvania and New York south to Florida and west to Texas. It differs from staghorn and smooth sumac in two main ways:
- Winged sumac has small “wings” of leaf tissue running along the central stalk between the individual leaflets, which is the easiest way to spot it.
- The leaflets are glossy on top (hence “shining”) and have smooth or only slightly toothed edges.
Winged sumac is also fully edible, and the drupes are widely considered to have one of the best flavors of any North American sumac. If you’re foraging in the southeast, this is the species you’re most likely to find.
Tree of Heaven
Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is an invasive Asian tree that’s sometimes mistaken for sumac because of its similar pinnately compound leaves. Tree of Heaven differs from staghorn sumac in several ways:
- Tree of Heaven leaflets are smooth-edged with one or two small teeth at the base, not the consistently serrated edges of sumac.
- Crushed Tree of Heaven leaves have a strong, unpleasant smell often compared to rancid peanut butter or burnt rubber.
- Tree of Heaven produces winged seed clusters (samaras), not the upright fuzzy red drupes of sumac.
- Tree of Heaven grows much taller (often 50 to 80 feet) and has a single dominant trunk rather than the colony-forming habit of sumac.
Tree of Heaven is not edible and shouldn’t be confused with sumac for foraging purposes.
How to Harvest Staghorn Sumac
Once you’ve identified a productive stand of staghorn sumac, harvesting is straightforward. Look for fully ripened, deep red drupes (avoid the dull brown or pale pink ones that haven’t fully developed). Snip whole cone-shaped clusters off the tree with pruning shears, cutting just below the base of the cluster where it joins the branch. A productive stand can yield several pints of clusters in a half-hour of harvest time.
Sumac is best harvested on a dry, sunny day, ideally before any heavy rain has had a chance to wash the lemony coating off the drupes. The first hard rain of fall typically marks the end of peak sumac season, since the rain leaches the water-soluble flavor compounds out of the fuzzy coating.
The drupes don’t keep well fresh; they should be processed within a day or two of harvest, or dried for long-term storage. Drying is straightforward: spread the whole clusters in a single layer on a screen or rack in a warm, dry, well-ventilated spot for about a week, until the drupes are completely dry and brittle. Once dried, they keep for a year or more in an airtight container.
Processing Sumac Pods
So now that you’ve harvested a few staghorn sumac drupe clusters, how do you process them into food?
It’s actually the red velvet on the outside of the sumac drupes that’s the tasty part. It has a wonderful sweet/tart citrus taste, that some liken to strawberry lemonade.
Since it already has that flavor, making a sumac lemonade is the obvious thing to do. The seeds and stalks contain bitter alkaloids that are extracted by hot water, so it’s important to only use cold water when making a sumac infusion.
The first step is to break apart the seed heads. In my first harvest, I just stuffed the whole pods into cold water and made lemonade that way, and it was horrible. I cracked open the pods after and found them full of putrid dead worms and worm poop. Mmmm, worm lemonade. Don’t make that mistake; take them apart first. Start by pulling back individual bundles of seeds from the outside of the fruit clusters.
With a little gentle pressure, these break right off into your hand in tiny clusters. Work slowly, because if you do hit a batch of worm poop you can keep the clean sumac separate if you’re careful.
Individual clusters can then be broken down into individual seeds, removing as much of the stem as possible. All the flavor is in the fluff, so try to just get red velvet-covered seeds separated from everything else.
In the past, I’ve found a few sumac pods without worms, but those are rare in my harvests. Just about all of them are full of black worm poop, and this one was no exception. As I pulled off the fluffy outer seeds I hit the poop layer right on schedule. That, obviously, is where you stop. Keep pulling the clean seeds off the outside and leave the wormy parts for the compost heap.
Even a wormy sumac pod still has plenty of velvet-covered sumac seeds to harvest. Work around the outside, pulling off clusters and separating them out from the stems and worms. I generally get a good-sized handful of clean berries from each pod, even the worst wormy ones.
Ways to Use Staghorn Sumac
Once you’ve separated the velvety drupes from the woody seed cores, the most rewarding ways to use sumac fall into two categories: cold infusions for drinks, and dried-and-ground spice for cooking. Both are easy and both make the most of sumac’s bright, tart, lemony flavor.
Sumac Lemonade
A simple overnight cold water extraction is the best way to get to the flavor. My friend Susan at Learning and Yearning suggests allowing sumac lemonade to sit for just half an hour to extract, but I tend to like pretty tart lemonade with barely any sugar and a lot of lemon juice.
For your own tastes, you’ll have to work it out on your own. The drupes aren’t particularly sweet, so add sugar to taste too. Cold water is critical here; hot water extracts bitter alkaloids from the seeds and stems and will produce a harsh, astringent drink rather than the bright lemonade you’re aiming for.
Sumac Spice
Dried and ground sumac is one of the most useful foraged spices, and the flavor is the same as the Middle Eastern sumac (Rhus coriaria) you’ll find in jars at the spice shop. To make sumac spice, dry the harvested drupe clusters completely, then strip the dried red velvet from the seeds and stems.
The easiest way to do this is to pulse the dried clusters in a spice grinder or blender for 30 seconds to break up the velvet, then sift the result through a fine mesh sieve to separate the powdery red velvet from the harder seeds and stem bits. The red powder that falls through is your sumac spice.
Stored in an airtight jar away from light, homemade sumac spice keeps for a year or more. Use it as you’d use lemon zest: sprinkled on roasted vegetables, mixed into hummus and labneh, on grilled chicken or fish, in salad dressings, or as a finishing pinch on popcorn or avocado toast.
Sumac Tea and Other Uses
For foragers in the northeast, where lemons are nowhere to be found, sumac is a great option for extra vitamin C year-round, and it’s a welcome change from the pine needle tea you’d otherwise be drinking for foraged vitamins.
Other traditional uses include sumac wine, sumac vinegar, sumac salad dressing, and sumac-infused honey. The bright lemony flavor pairs especially well with cold-water infusions, so most home preparations stay on the cold-process side. Sumac is sometimes used as a finishing element on cheese boards, where the bright red color and tart flavor make it a striking complement to mild fresh cheeses.
Staghorn Sumac FAQs
Yes, staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is fully edible. The bright red, fuzzy drupes have a tart, lemony flavor and have been used as a spice and beverage base for centuries. The flavor lives in the velvety red coating on the outside of the drupes; the hard seeds inside are not typically eaten. Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) and winged sumac (Rhus copallinum) are also edible and used the same way. The young spring shoots are also edible after the leaves and outer bark are peeled off.
Staghorn sumac and poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) are not even in the same genus and are easy to tell apart. Staghorn sumac has upright cone-shaped clusters of fuzzy bright red drupes, serrated leaflets, and densely fuzzy reddish-brown young branches; it grows in dry, sunny habitats like roadsides and old fields. Poison sumac has hanging clusters of pale green to whitish drupes (like grapes), smooth-edged hairless leaflets, and smooth hairless branches; it grows almost exclusively in swamps and wet bottomland. The drupes especially never look alike at fruiting time.
The best time to harvest staghorn sumac is late summer through early fall, typically late July through September across most of the species’ range. The drupes are at peak flavor when they’re fully red and before any heavy rain has washed the lemony coating off. Sumac drupes persist on the tree all winter, so you can also harvest in fall and winter, though the flavor will be milder than at peak. Avoid late spring, when the previous year’s drupes have degraded and the new ones haven’t ripened yet.
You can chew on a fresh staghorn sumac drupe to taste the lemony coating, but the drupes aren’t typically eaten whole because of the hard inner seed and the dry, fibrous texture. The standard preparations are sumac-ade (a cold water infusion of the drupes, strained to remove the seeds), and dried sumac spice (the dried red velvet ground and sifted out from the seeds). Both methods extract just the bright lemony flavor and leave the inedible parts behind.
They’re closely related but not the same species. The sumac spice sold in Middle Eastern grocery stores comes from Rhus coriaria, also called Mediterranean sumac, which is native to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is its North American cousin, in the same genus, with the same lemony flavor profile. They can be used interchangeably in any recipe calling for sumac, and many home foragers prefer the fresh-ground flavor of staghorn over store-bought.
Did you find this Staghorn Sumac foraging guide helpful? Tell me in the 📝 comments below how you use sumac on your homestead!
And make sure you stay in touch with me by following on social media!
Wild Fruit Foraging Guides
Find the perfect foraging guide
Searching for something else? Enter keywords to find the perfect foraging guide!
So I think I plucked mine too soon, didn’t break it apart either made it more like a black tea taste. Tried a few sips nothing bad yet. So wondering if i should dump it and try again. And also should i wait a bit they are more pinkish seeds than reddish
Yes, it sounds like you definitely need to let them ripen a bit longer.
Stag horn sumac is also used in natural dyeing.
Great article. Thanks!
Thank you. We’re so glad you enjoyed the article.
Thank you so much for this article. The person who taught me about Sumac used to steep the fruit in just boiled water for a long time, and it was bitter! After reading your instructions,I am looking forward to trying it as a cold brew. Perhaps I will like it better, and not just drink it for its antiviral properties and Vitamin C!
What had me searching your site is that I just gathered some sumac and had it on a sheet for a day upstate for bugs to leave (and there were a lot of worms!) before coming back to NYC. I was too tired to get the dehydrator out when I got home, so spread them out on a sheet on the floor to continue drying. This morning I found about a dozen worms crawling around on the floor which I put outside. (I live on the 15th floor.) Now I am worried that something undesirable may hatch in my apartment! I have houseplants which a worm could eat before metamorphosing into a moth. I couldn’t find any info about what the worms are and what they grow into, so if you have any information to assuage my concern over an infestation, please let me know. Ingesting some is less scary to me than having them take up residence in my tiny apartment! Thank you.
I am sure you will be fine. If you find any stragglers, just put them out with the others.
Ewww. Found some horns. Can’t get passed the worms and poo. Tossing them. There are other things to ingest. They must use a different kind of sumac for store bought spice.
Thanks for the article!💕
It actually is the same although technically not a spice, it is made from ground sumac flowers.
Great, detailed post! Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this interesting plant! It’s end of July here in SE Michigan, and I see lots of staghorn sumac along the side of the highways/roads. Some are a maroon red, some are a dark red, and some are a bright red. I have a few questions: (a) Is it okay to harvest some sumac located near a busy highway/road? (b) Are the staghorn sumac ready for harvest this time of year? (c) Is there a difference to the quality/freshness of the sumac when considering the color (are the brighter red the best/only/healthiest ones to pick?)? Thank you in advance for any insights you can provide!
You want to harvest as far away from the road as possible. The staghorn sumac is not as susceptible to contamination from the roadways since the “fruit” is in the air. There are several factors to take into consideration. The distance from the road to the plant, the busyness of the road and whether the plant is uphill or downhill from the road. If they are red, then they should be ready for harvest. The brighter the color, the more fresh they should be. They lose flavor and nutrients as they age so the more bright red, the better.
That is helpful! Thank you so much for your reply!
You’re very welcome.
I was wondering if after I stick them in a brown paper bag for a while… can I then scrape off the berries and freeze them in a jar for winter.
Yes, that should work just fine.
These grow prolifically in Ontario, where we used to live years ago. There was a large patch of them on our property, but I ignored them then. I have since discovered the “lemonade” in this article and wished I had that info when we had them on hand to harvest. I have not seen many up here and have not had the time to search for them. Maybe I will do that this year. Thanks for the info on the worms. Handy to know!
You’re welcome and good luck finding some sumac to forage.
I’ve been foraging for a couple of years now. In WV, we have the Smooth Sumac and we’ve been making “lemonade” forever. My goal is to make a pie, like Lemon pie. I’m still working on the details…
Oooo….that sounds like a great idea!
Hi Ashley! Great article. Do you rinse the seed pods prior to putting them in the cold water infusion?
I don’t usually, but it’s probably not a bad idea.
I harvested some staghorn cones last week. I let them air dry for three days then removed the fuzzy parts. There are no hard shells only fuzz and the seeds are smaller than sesame seeds. I am having such a hard time separating the fuzz from seed even after using a coffee grinder. Is the fuzz what will be the dried spice that I can store in a jar?
I’m not sure. I haven’t heard of it being used like that but someone else posted a similar comment. Let us know if you find out.
Smooth Sumac. I am very new to this. I picked some smooth sumac, since I didn’t know better, I cooked the sumac for 20 minutes, then split into 2 recipes. Made simple syrup and Sumac jelly. I didn’t look for worms or poop. Should I throw it out?
If you didn’t see any, I’m sure it’s fine!
I’ve always steeped the berrie bunches I hot water(not boiling), I guess try your way & te the result.
Great! Keep me updated on your findings of both methods!
I found a Sumac tree in Eudora Mississippi today. I never seen one in person before. I foraged off of it and did a lot of research to make sure that it is the Real Deal. Well, it is and I’m Super excited to start preparing it for it’s many uses. However, since all ya’ll been talking about Sumac possibly having Worms/poop in the pods, I’m almost too afraid to touch it now. I’m terrified of Worms and I just planted my first Vegetable Garden this Spring. Didn’t see One worm all spring. I need to see a Therapist or Hypnotist before I can go close to or touch a worm. What do I do Now?
Hm, I’m not a therapist or hypnotist, but I can tell you that if you leave your foraged edibles outside after they’re gathered, most bugs or worms will vacate as soon as possible. I hope that helps ease your worries!
Just collected a big basket of it here between Rochester and buffalo new York on nature trails. Can’t wait to make sumac-ade and make an Indian spice out of it! With winter coming I’m curious about the cough syrup options! All fellow Western New York foragers let me know what you think! #foragebuddies
Awesome! I hope you enjoy all the sumac recipes!
Sharon -are your white balls on a vine.They May be seed pods of an invasive vine called wild cucumber in my area.Don’t know the proper name. Pretty flowers followed by lacy balls with several seeds in them.
Nice to hear about the smooth variety. That is what I find here in Long Island NY. It is late august and some are just getting good and red. Will try some of them maybe in two weeks. We use sumac powder on rice and beef kabob dish as it is traditionally required for the Persian dish Celo Kabab. Without a dehydrator I will need to research another method to dry the drupes before crushing into powder. Will try the cold brew soon.
Very interesting article! I grew up on a farm in Upstate New York and this grows everywhere! As kids we were always told it was poison and not to go near it. I didn’t realize it was used as a spice until I saw it in an Italian market in Toledo, Oh. It has been an addition to my spice cupboard.
I picked some sumac today for the first time. One had hairs on fruit (I got rid of it because I though it wasn’t ready) and other had just fruits only. Since I didn’t check the leaves, but only licked sticky liquid on my fingers and I didn’t have a bad reaction, after reading this blog, I can say that they are safe. I boiled them for few minutes and strained them. I didn’t check for poop, but after I picked them and put them in a bag I found spiders and ticks. My question is, did anyone worry about spiders and ticks in the liquid after they are boiled? Is my liquid safe? I want to make jelly.
Anyone have a more clear photo of the worm poop that can be found inside? The sumac I harvested has lots of dried brown bits inside. They look more like chaff, or dried plant material to me. Don’t see any actual worms.
I would just harvest the fluff that you find on the outside and discard whatever is left in the middle.
Last year I made a vodka infusion with the staghorns. It turned out wonderfully once some simple syrup was added. It was a bit tannin-y. Very much like a cranberry vodka drink. This year I wanted to early harvest some immature berry pods and infuse that. Have you ever harvested or infused early season berries? Today they were just starting to turn from green to red.
Here in Missouri we have four varieties of sumac. – staghorn, smooth, winged, and one more I can’t remember. I use smooth sumac which is similar to staghorn except the berries are smooth without the “hairs”. For lemonade I pick the good berries from each head, pour room-temp water over them, mash with a large spoon (I use a potato masher), and steep about 15-30 min. before straining. and making sumacade. I use about six heads per half gallon. To make spice whirl them in the food processor then shake the powder through a strainer and throw away the remains. Winged sumac looks the same as the others except there are small papery “wings” growing on both sides of the branches. I recommend finding sumac away from roadsides if possible – less dust on the seed heads and the more they are washed, the less flavorful the seeds. Sumac can be grown as an ornamental but will need to be tended or it can eventually spread to make a colony.