I loved this months Shrub challenge, At the Food in Jars Blog, we even had a Shrub Party.. I made four different kinds, Elderberry, High Bush Cranberry, Elderflower and Homemade Grape.

What we learned at the party

• the younger crowd all voted Elderberry with vodka for the win
• If you don’t like vinegar, you will not like the smell of a Shrub, even if you don’t mind the taste itself.
• Do consider a hot Shrub.. it does not need to be only served cold!

The Winner per all the data crunched.. High Bush Cranberry Shrub, Ice Cold with Polar Ice vodka.

• 2 Oz of High Brush Cranberry Syrup
• 1 Oz of White Wine vinegar
• 1 Oz of Polar Ice Vodka
• Top up with Cold Water or Sparkling Water or Ginger Ale works as well!

High Bush Cranberries grow wild all over Canada and they say up and down the States as well, it is also grown in Europe in many places. We hunted up and down the back roads till we found a patch that we liked the flavour of the berries on and we dug out a number of the suckering babies (filling the holes back in with compost from the barn to say thank you to the parent plants, which also means that the wild harvest from the bushes have more than doubled in amounts for years to follow)

Over the years they have grown into fine bushes in our food forest area..

We like to make sure that the berries get some good hard frosts on them to help sweeten them up just a touch, and then we use the Steamer to steam the berry’s and collect the juice.

From Which I tend to make awesome jars of homemade High Bush Cranberry Jelly for the next years use. I did not save any Juice only for the Shrub Challenge but I did have a single batch I had made into pancake Syrup instead of Jelly and that is what I used for the Drinks.