The combination of flavors, processes, and mixtures of shrubs is limitless, and the process is very forgiving.
Ginger Grapefruit Shrub
Ingredients
- 3 large grapefruits halved and juiced
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 4- inch piece fresh ginger thinly sliced
- 1½ cups apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Juice the grapefruits. Strain, setting the pulp aside for the shrub and juice for drinking separately. Grate zest from grapefruits into a jar if possible to reserve as much oil as possible. I prefer using a zester that makes ribbons, but a microplane or slicing the zest finely with a knife works too.
- Add sugar and ginger to zest in the jar. Screw on lid and shake to cover the zest and ginger in sugar. Let sit at room temperature, shaking occasionally, for at least 8 hours and up to overnight.
- Stir vinegar and grapefruit chunks (1½ cups chunks plus ½ cup juice—I drank the rest of the juice) into sugar mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 2 days. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a 1-quart lidded jar.
Sherri Scott runs GRUB Grown Nursery and Farm, specializing in edible and otherwise useful garden starts. She sells these starts at Chico Natural Foods and at her booth at the Saturday Chico Farmers’ Market, February-mid November, or by email arrangement for pick-up. Under the name Naturejunkie Farm & Forage, she also uses farmed and foraged herbs, fruits, and vegetables to make cane sugar-free and mostly vegan foods, nutritionals, and medicinals. She co-founded Chico’s Annual Seed Swap and Chico Seed Lending Library, and has taught cooking, gardening, and herbal workshops for kids and adults. Her recently recorded Zoom workshop on Backyard Seed Saving, sponsored by Butte County Local Food Network, is available on You Tube. You can email her at naturejunkiechico@gmail.com.