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ginger rhubarb syrup etc.
May 31, 2017

We hunkered down at home for the long weekend. Herds of wet, hungry kids passing through our kitchen every 30 minutes, at least 429 weeds pulled, 4 rows of beet seeds sown, 8 sunscreen applications, clothes drying on the line in 7 hot minutes flat, 3 slivers removed, 2 pairs of lost shoes, 16 sprinkler-trampoline routines watched, 1 grown up tantrum over the jacked up irrigation system.

Our mower and weed whacker were broken and, once fixed, it took me 4 hours to tame the jungle. I paused often to wipe the green buggy yard debris film from my sunglasses. My forearms are still vibrating. My skin smells like sunshine. I cannot wait for school to be out for the summer.

I went for a bike ride with my girls. And, long story short: we drove 2 miles from our house to a trailhead, biked for a few hours. Returned to the truck and the key wasn’t in that little zippered pocket on Ruby’s camelbak….so we biked home (man my kids dug deep and rallied to make that trek). Once home, the spare key wasn’t where it ought to be and I remembered it was in my purse in the truck at the trailhead. So I dropped the kids at friends’ houses, packed a coat hangar in my pack and biked back to the trailhead. I biked about a mile up the trail to see if the lost key was where we’d stopped for a snack. Nope.

Back to the truck.

Like a lock picking ninja I got the truck open in no time. Hi-Ya! Spare key was in my purse. I was on my way home.

Wait…what’s that clicking noise? It sound like something dangling from the passenger door? Oh. It’s the truck key that was in the lock that whole damn time.

At least the keychain tells me my garden kicks ass?

We harvested the last of our rhubarb and while pie is tough to beat, I wanted to preserve the bright tang to enjoy over those grey winter months. We made rhubarb syrup. (Also! I updated my rhubarb pie recipe on the original post from 2010 (ah two year-old Margot!). It’s better than before: tarter and larger.)

I don’t usually make fruit syrup because my family members are traditionalists when it comes to french toast and pancakes. Maple all the way. But a liquidy, barely sweetened rhubarb syrup just might be delightful in a glass of soda water. And maybe a bit of gin…

There are many rhubarb syrup recipes out there and they all call for heaps of sugar. I chose to experiment with minimal sugar, adding bits at a time to achieve a good, just-sweet balance to the puckery fruit. It was super easy to make and the color knocked my socks off! I thought perhaps the green and pink stalks would make a greige syrup but it turned out to be a lovely, watermelony pink.

We like it so much that we ditched our plans to make jam and just made more syrup.

ginger!

The recipe already.

ginger rhubarb syrup / makes 4 pints

Ingredients:
3 lbs chopped rhubarb
fistful ginger, peeled and finely grated
5.5 cups water
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

  1. Bring rhubarb, ginger and water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes.
  2. Strain liquid. Use a fine mesh strainer and pour rhubarb mixture over bowl. A trick I learned from Marisa at Food In Jars: don’t push pulp against mesh as it will result in a cloudy syrup. I let it sit for about 30 seconds and then tossed the pulp up and over itself to release last bits of juice. Discard pulp.
  3. Put the juice back in the pot with the sugar and lemon juice and heat over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. This syrup is pretty tart. Taste and add more sugar if you’d like.

At this point you can simply pour into jars and store in the fridge. Or you can process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. I filled one glass bottle for immediate use and canned the rest.

rhubarb spritzer

Simply pour a bit of the syrup over ice cubes and top with soda water. Experiment with the ratio you like, ours was about 1 part syrup, 5 parts soda water. For the grown ups: add another 1 part gin. Garnish with a big chunk of fresh mint. I think the mint would be delicious pulverized in there too.

I’ll leave you with the song Ruby has had stuck in her head for a week and that she generously gave to me:

Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows!
Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing in my Head!

That’s it. Repeat no less than 47 times an hour and you too will be graced with these lyrics knocking around your brain.

{Updated to add: This is actually a song!!! Ha! Not the “dancing in my head” part (but I *totally* get how that evolved for Ruby) but the other line can be heard over and over and OVER here.}

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adventure  / dig makes food {recipe}  / dig preserves food

11 Comments


Lisa M.
May 31, 2017 at 2:04 PM

My mouth watered the minute I saw the bowl full of chopped up rhubarb. Brings back so many memories of picking rhubarb in my grandma’s garden as a kid.



Marsha Kern
June 1, 2017 at 4:44 AM

I am not a rhubarb but I loved the key story!!



Natalie
June 1, 2017 at 7:44 AM

Where is your daughters red flower dress from? So cute!



trbholt
June 1, 2017 at 8:31 AM

OMG! I laughed out loud about the ” comedy key act”!!!!

The syrup looked DEELISH!

xoxo



Britta
June 1, 2017 at 9:00 AM

I miss rhubarb so much since we moved to Florida! No giant patch in the yard to grab and make deliciousness with. This looks amazing. Love the key story!



Whitney
June 2, 2017 at 3:33 PM

Nici, my boys are currently singing that song nonstop, too! (Way down here in Atlanta)

Our garden is pathetic this year. I just could/can not get motivated. We had about a million tomato seedlings sprout up in our back yard, after I let Last year’s plants just dry up covered in dozens of unripened cherry tomatoes, so my husband dig up a few and plopped them in our raised beds. And that’s IT. Maybe next summer



sam-c
June 19, 2017 at 10:37 AM

HA ha! I’ve heard that song. My son and his friend used to sing that non-stop during camping/ biking trips, and now I am going to have it stuck in my head. Their version starts out on a rainbow, but then gets violent, with pink fluffy unicorns dancing on highways, pink fluffy unicorns getting run over… and so on (they are 9 and in all other aspects, pretty non-violent))



    sam-c
    June 19, 2017 at 10:44 AM

    (and when I get their version stuck in my head, it always ends up with pink fluffy unicorns ‘slicing up eyeballs’ – thanks to the Pixies

      dig
      June 23, 2017 at 5:46 PM

      Ha! Love it.

Julia
June 23, 2017 at 3:43 PM

With two little ones “helping” in the kitchen, I absentmindedly added ALL ingredients to the pot to simmer. It seems to have turned out fine! And the plus is that the rhubarb pulp is now slightly sweet and gingery and the kids are enjoying it by the spoonful 🙂 Yay for not having to throw it out! Not sure if the consistency would be different had I followed the directions correctly…I’ll try it next time!



    dig
    June 23, 2017 at 5:35 PM

    Oh that’s awesome! Keep me updated on your trials? 🙂

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    I’m Nici (pronounced like Nikki) and I live in western Montana where I raise kids, vegetables and the roof.

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