So it’s summer, which means I can’t go to the grocery store without bringing home more fruit than any two people can eat.  And when you have a whole bunch of extra fruit (and you’ve made your fill of pies, because really there has to be some limit), clearly the thing to do is make shrub.

Now we talked about this at some length before, and you can go read that if you want.

For now I’ll just say it starts with sugar + rhubarb.

An hour later you’ve got this.

And an hour after that you’ve got this.

A day or two later, you pour in some apple cider vinegar (the kind you let ferment on your counter if at all possible), cover it, and wait for the little yeasties and microbes to work their magic.  In a week it will be good.  In a month it will be amazing.

And yes, it will bubble and fizz.  Yes it will make funny smells.  Yes I suppose it could go horribly wrong and kill you, so do your reading if you want to try it.  I’m totally not a reputable source.  But it hasn’t killed us yet, and oh wow is it good.