Shumake noun The sumac bush (Rhus glabra). Its bark is made into a preparation to treat burns, and its blossoms and fruit are used for a tea drunk as medicine or for refreshment and called sumacade.
….1927 Thornborough Tramping 466 He also told me that the mountain people call hemlock “spruce pine,” the black spruce “he-balsam,” the Fraser balsam “she-balsam,” the sumac “shumake,” the butternut “white walnut,” while cucumber is humorously called “cowcucumber.” 1936 LAMASAS (Madison Co NC, Swain Co NC). 1966-68 DARE = causes itching and swelling (Brasstown NC, Burnsville NC, Cherokee NC, Spruce Pine NC). [1971 Krochmal et al. Medicinal Plants Appal 214 The dried ripe fruit of sumac is valuable as a source of tannic acid. Preparations of these fruits are effective as astringents, anti-diuretics, and tonics. In Appalachia, leaves are smoked to treat asthma.]
Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
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Shumake (sounds like shoe make) is another word that I didn’t realize…well I didn’t realize it wasn’t a word.
Until recently, I thought Sumac was a totally different plant than shoe-make which I’ve known about my entire life.
Research online and in books tells me red sumac (shoe-make) is safe for eating. White Sumac is the one that is poisonous and will cause itching and hives.
Tipper
I have a shoemake tree on my property that for the first 3 years I lived there I didn’t realize that’s what it was. my dad being there one day and staring at the tree for hours and telling me that he had never seen one of that large when I realized what he was talking about I was utterly amazed what had been in front of me the whole time I never noticed. the thing is over 40 ft tall and takes three people to reach around it I’m wondering if it could be the largest one in the world?
We used to use the shoemake berries with the last firing of our dark fired tobacco we raised when I was a kid. Me, Daddy and Momma would build the sawdust rows then se would sprinkle a light covering of the BB sized berries and start the smoke. The tobacco leaves would turn a darker brown color and man alvie what a sheen the leaves had.
My grandpa always called it shoemake
And I thought that was the real name until I started working for the National Park Service! I have used the red berries to make a beautiful dye on wool and have also make a wonderful pink lemonade from the berries. It is so beautiful in the fall when the leaves turn brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows!
Roy-YIKES! I’ve read that inhaling the smoke of white sumac can be deadly! I’m glad she was ok : ) I need to share a story about Pap and his run in with the poison kind.
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Once I burned some shoe-make in the fireplace. My wife’s eyes almost swelled shut. Don’t burn, at least in a closed up area such as your fireplace.
Here I am with insomnia, and realized I had not dropped by your blog on Tuesday. I always find it so interesting and “memory prodding.”
Years ago when I lived more in the country there were these beautiful bushes growing along a bank. In the Autumn they had the most brilliant red I have ever seen. A visitor from another state was visiting, and found them amazing. So, we asked my Dad (the authority on almost everything native to the area)to find out what they were. He called them Shumates. I found poison Sumac in a reference book and just figured it was a mountain man mispronouncing a word he had heard growing up. The subject never came up for many years until my Grandson roped me into helping with a leaf project at school. I researched enough to know the leaf I found was not of the poison variety, so it was placed in his leaf book with a notation.
Now, thanks to your blog, all these years later I find Dad was right–he knew all the trees, plants and wildlife. I still can’t even identify ginseng.
I love sumac in grain and veggie salads. I also use za’atar blend.
In our neck of the woods, we call the ones that turn red “flame sumac”. They make a pretty autumn bouquet.
Tipper-I think folks are still confusing poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) with shoemake (Rhus glabra). It was once thought to be in the same genus because of the similarity of the leaves. They are both in the same family (anacardiaceae) as cashews. I hope people don’t stop eating cashews.
Shoemake is not poisonous but it sure can be a pest. I have it on my property and it’s trying to take over. If you pull it up, a two foot tall plant might have a root 15 feet long. If you try to pull up the main root every side root that breaks off will grow a new plant. If you manage to pull the whole root, at the end there is usually another plant with a another root that continues on. If you are mowing the area it will eventually die off after a few years. Roundup will kill it back for the rest of the year but the root will survive and come back next spring.
I had some rich black soil in one part of my yard that I wanted to move to my garden but it was full of shoemake roots tangled with briar roots. I made a screen and sifted the soil into a wheelbar before putting it on the garden. I still had shoemake come up.
Yes, it’s a wheelbar! A wheelbarrow is shiny and clean with the maker’s labels still on it. A wheelbar is rusty and worn. The wheel skreaks and the tire has to be pumped up every time you use it. If you are hauling dirt or mulch, you have to put cardboard over the holes in the bed before you fill it or you will have only half a load when you get where you are going.
There are several species of sumac. The most common one in a lot of places is the one you mention “Rhus glabra”. Another common names for it are ‘winged sumac’ so named because the mid-rib on the compound leaf has ‘wings between each leaflet. Your picture shows them fairly well. Still another common name is ‘shining sumac’ because the leaves are glossy.
Winged sumac makes a pretty little landscape mini-tree in part because it turns a beautiful red about this time of year. I have made sumac-ade using its fruits several times and it is good but needs to be strained to get the little ‘beards’ out of it for the best appearance.
There is a ‘poison sumac’ that is a relative of poison ivy that causes the rash and itching. The scientific name is “Toxicodendron vernix” thus not a sumac at all, though it resembles one. Its range is eastern Canada and eastern US plus Texas. The range map and images can be seen at the USDA Plants Database online.
Tipper,
I’ve never had any trouble out of
shoe-make and I cut down lots of it every year before I do any gardening. But I wear gloves and
wash throughly afterwards.
I had an older brother who got
really poisoned and had to go to
the Doctor. His face and arms were a mess.
Just above my footlog that goes
to the garden and along the creek
bank, there’s plenty of shoe-make
trees. Mine must be the white
kind…Ken
The red berries can be brewed into a tea (some say “lemonade). Lots of recipes available on the web. Here’s one: http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2012/08/sumac-lemonade-recipe-sweet-and-sour.html
It’s always been shoemake to me and shoemake t’will always be!
If you ain’t never made a popgun from the stem of a shoemake then you ain’t no Appalachian mountain boy! If you called it a spit wad gun, that’ll pass.
These comments by the ladies in this group come ‘across’ just like my Grandmother Wimpey and my Grandma Mull would have talked! Sweet memories! Eva Nell
Today I learned something new. To me sumac was something to stay away from. Now I realize that there is some value as a plant and bark. Thanks for the info.
I’ve often heard it called shoe-mack, but never shoe-make. I’ve also handled the stuff all my life and never got any hives or itching from it, in spite of often hearing it called poison shoe-mack. When I was a kid and my friends and I thought smoking cornsilk was a cool thing to do, we made the stems of our corncob pipes out of a piece of sumac branch with the middle pulp removed with a piece of baling wire.
My grandmother, Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer, was very knowledgeable in natural herbs and their usages. I often wish I had her “herb receipts” (as she called them–recipes–but those must have long been lost). She knew the uses of sumac (and she called the plant and berries shoemake, too). Thanks for the information on shoemake (sumac).
Poison sumac is what I’ve heard it called and it was pronounced just like it is spelled. Given the first word of what I heard it called I always avoided it, like poison ivy, it would make you itch.
Interesting, I did not realize Sumac had so many uses
We harvested sumac berries yesterday – very tart! Going to dry them and make za’atar spice rub tonight.