In case you haven’t met yet, let me introduce you to THE SHRUB—the kind you drink. This rhubarb shrub recipe is a bright, sweet-tart way to preserve the season and bring a little sparkle to everyday sipping.

Shrub What?

At its heart, a shrub is a sweetened fruit syrup mixed with vinegar to preserve summer flavors. In practice, shrubs are best sipped with friends who are as bubbly and sweet/tart as the flavors flowing from the glass.

The magic of any shrub is how it brings together the sweetness of the fruit with the acid of vinegar—creating a depth of flavor that lays down a perfect base to build on. But typical of true magic, there’s a third part: the health benefits of probiotics and enzymes from the apple cider vinegar complete the trinity.

When I first made shrubs, I cooked my rhubarb (and other fruits), then strained the juice and added vinegar. But there is a fresher flavor with fermenting. This may seem counterintuitive, but hear me out. When you skip cooking the fruit, you retain some great high notes from the rhubarb. Similar to fresh strawberry jam versus cooked strawberry jam…

Stephanie Thurow, my friend and coauthor of Small-Scale Homesteading, is also a master food preserver at Minnesota from Scratch. She first opened my eyes to fermenting shrubs and I will never go back!

THE BOOK

Stephanie’s book, Weck Small Batch Preserving, is full of easy-to-follow recipes and features the Rhubarb Shrub Recipe below. It’s just one of 100 recipes that make the most of the local summer flavors. *This is a book for year round preserving and the perfect companion for the home gardener!*

Stephanie’s Rhubarb Shrub Recipe

This recipe was adapted from WECK Small-Batch Preserving with permission from Skyhorse Publishing, Inc

1½ Cups chopped fruit

Herbs (optional)

1½ Cups Organic/Non-GMO granulated sugar or natural sweetener of choice

1 ½ Cups Apple Cider Vinegar or other vinegar of choice

Directions

Yield: 1 pint jar (2 cups)

Combine fruits, optional herbs, and sugar or other natural sweetener of choice and mix well.

Add mixture to glass canning jar and cover with a lid.

Leave the jar on the counter at room temperature for 3 to 4 days until the natural juices separate from the fruit and mix with the sugar to create a syrup.

Stir the fruit and sugar mixture several times a day, if able; this will help speed up the syrup making process.

If using solid fruits such as blueberries, use a clean spoon to break them down a bit so the natural juices are released and mixed with the sugar. Frozen fruits are great options too, since the juices are more readily available once thawed. 

Fermenting Process

After a few days, when the sugar and fruit have mixed together to create a syrup, use a fine mesh strainer to strain out the solids, reserving the fruit syrup in a clean jar.

Then, add vinegar of equal measurement to the amount of syrup made, and mix well.

I prefer to mix the fruit syrup with apple cider vinegar in my shrubs, not only because of the probiotic benefit, but because I consider it to have the best flavor. However, you can use wine vinegar, white distilled vinegar, or any other vinegar with at least 5% acidity in its place!

Store in an airtight container or jar and refrigerate.

Drink within a few months for best flavor.

To serve, I like to mix 2 oz. of completed shrub with 6 oz. of tap water and drink from a pretty glass filled with ice.

*Michelle is not a purist and prefers club soda or bubbly water, and a little gin mixed with her shrubs… vodka or a dry white wine.
**Save some of the fruit (before pushing through strainer) to garnish drinks!

Thanks, Stephanie, for sharing your recipe with us all!

Cheers!

Mix + Match

There are so many variations to a basic rhubarb shrub, some of my favorites are:

• Rhubarb + Blueberry (Blubarb)
• Rhubarb + Strawberry
• Rhubarb + Ginger
• Rhubarb + Mint

I also love how the shrubs can take the best of the flavors out of the older, larger stalks of rhubarb without having to deal with the woody texture. So you can save the ‘just right’ sized stalks for rhubarb crisp or jam and skip the stringy consistency but still use all your plant!

But as summer wears on, don’t let the changing seasons stop you from trying other flavor combinations. Blackberry, peach, plum, apricot, and cherry all make good shrubs too!

History of the Shrub

The American version of the shrub originated in 17th century England, where vinegar was used as an alternative to citrus juices in the preservation of berries and other fruits for the off-season. Fruit preserves made in this fashion were themselves known as shrubs and the practice carried over to colonial America. At that pre-refrigeration time, fruit was preserved in vinegar. Doctors used the syrup drained from it as medicine for everything from scurvy to heart issues.

Over the next centuries people starting mixing with other liquors and the Shrub’s popularity skyrocketed (hmm, wonder why?). Then once refrigeration became normal, shrubs were pretty much forgotten about … to be reinvigorated by trendy bartenders and Midwest Moms in the 2000s.

Mixology!

Once you have the bright and zingy shrub, your options for mixing are pretty much endless. But here’s a basic recipe to get you mixing.

• 1 oz. rhubarb shrub 
• 3 oz. something dry and bright, like gin, white wine,  sherry, or dry vermouth
• Add ice and top with a couple ounces of good-quality tonic, soda, or water

Let us know if you find a new favorite mixture!

– Michelle + Stephanie

The post Rhubarb Shrub Love appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

The name alone gives you a warm fuzzy feeling and I can tell you from personal experience, their greenhouse is wonderfully warm even in the depths of winter… or at least most winters.

Like so many farmers and small business owners, Theresa is always looking to the future, and decided to make a ‘sea change’ in the farm over the last winter. They switched over from Aquaponics to Hydroponics, showing just how nimble small businesses can be.

As Theresa, the main farmer at Bright Future Farms, settles into these changes, she is finding room for growth in new areas. But first – let’s take a look at Aquaponic and Hydroponic development.

A Quick History

Farmers have always been tinkerers.  And some Mayan farmers (2,000 years ago!) were farming using an intricate system of open water canals, reservoirs and filtration boxes. Other cultures have used flooding and seasonal water fluctuations to their agricultural advantage throughout the years; think rice paddies.

Flash forward to the 1970’s and Dr James Rakocy at the University of the Virgin Islands developed a commercial-scale Aquaponics system that harnesses the waste of fish to fertilize plants, all within a closed loop system.

Aquaponics or Hydroponics

The main difference between the two systems is that aquaponics grows fish within the system as a way to fertilize the plants, while hydroponics grows plants only. Both systems are soil-less, using ‘growing medium’ like perlite, grow stones, rock wool etc. More info on ways to grow in the fun video by Epic Gardnening. The systems can look quite different and there are lots of small variations.

Hydroponics can be as simple as getting nutrient filled water to flow by plant roots. But even those kinds of systems require a pump. An Aquaponics system also includes:

Rearing Tanks, Clarifier, Filter Tanks.

The water is sent through the rearing tanks, clarifier and filters then onto the hydroponic tanks to water AND feed the produce. For Theresa, if they’re not growing fish, they simply add those fertilizing nutrients into the system.

The beauty of an aquaponics system is that lots of complex natural processes happen on their own… as long as the system is set up correctly. This creates a sustainable, self-contained system that produces nutrient dense foods.

In other terms, the fish produce waste, which is converted to fertilizer for plants, the plants then filter the water that return to the fish.

‘In’ the Farm

Theresa ended up with a single, 24′ X 36′  freestanding greenhouse that has supplemental heat for our cold Minnesota winters provided by a propane furnace.

Nelson and Pade, Inc is a trusted source for Aquaponics systems, and is the Wisconsin company Theresa went through to purchase her original Aquaponics set up. While not cheap to start up, the system is quite efficient once running.

The first thing I did when I visited on that frigid February day was walk through their bio-security system which included washing your hands and walking through a foot bath of a bacterial and parasitic killing solution. This step adds to their ability to say that they’re clean from outside contaminants, and keeps things growing healthy and organically.

Tending the System

When I first explored the greenhouse, it looked a bit like a science experiment, with tubes and tanks all hooked up and going around and around. But Theresa was able to explain it simply.

Theresa checks the water quality by testing levels of ammonia, nitrates, pH level, plus checks the temperature daily. The main input to an aquaponic system is fish food. The fish eat the food and excrete waste. More than 50% of the waste produced by fish is in the form of ammonia secreted in the urine and, in small quantities, through the gills. Monitoring a few key chemical levels assures healthy fish and plants.

Sea Change

Their greenhouse now consists of a Dutch bucket drip system for tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers, and a deep-water raft system for a variety of lettuces.

All produce is grown without soil or chemicals in very efficient re-circulating systems, within a controlled environment. Their current growing method is hydroponics, but the raft system is configured for both hydroponics and aquaponics.

Right now, they are adding the nutrients to the deep-water raft system. On average hydroponic systems use 10 times less water to grow food than traditional field crops. That adds up quick! 

“We may raise tilapia again, to have our aquaponics system operating, but are going to compare results of growing lettuce hydroponically before making that decision. Either method of growing produces healthy, delicious and safe food,” says Theresa. As you can see, this farmer is a scientist at heart.

Also of note, composting the unused parts of the vegetables they grow helps add to the general fertility of their outdoor farm garden.

Bright Future Farm also grows a variety of microgreens, also without soil or chemicals, that nicely accompany their other lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

Now, more than ever, smaller farms are becoming more popular will feed more of the country. Bright Future Farms combines that small business nimbleness with water wise growing techniques to produce delicious produce – and sometimes fish! In places where water is short, hydro- and aqua- ponics will play a larger and larger roll in food production in the upcoming years.

Catch Bright Future farm at these upcoming Farmers Markets:

Cambridge Farmers Market:
Saturdays starting May 7^th 9am-1pm

Lindstrom Farmers Market:
Wednesdays, starting July 8^th 3pm-6pm

Bright Future Farm’s Future is, well – bright! Check out their website for more info.

Dig into locally grown food!
Michelle

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