RhubarbAde

A beverage I make often for company and family gatherings is rhubarb-ade. It's my made-up version of lemonade utilizing rhubarb we harvest and freeze. It's gotta be made from frozen rhubarb, otherwise you'd need to break down the rhubarb by cooking. I think I already mentioned in the Rhubarb Crisp post that I freeze rhubarb in 2 quantity sized bags: either a heaping quart measure (so more like 5+ cups) for my rhubarb custard pie (in my Hearth & Home cookbook), or a heaping 2+ cup measure, for the crisp.

From the pie bag measure of rhubarb I make a gallon of the ade beverage.

Nuke (microwave) the frozen rhubarb a bit - starting to thaw with some liquid, but still somewhat frozen with the rhubarb cut chunks intact. I put this partially thawed rhubarb in my blender along with a couple cups of hot water. In a large pot or bowl have 1 cup of sugar. Blend the rhubarb some. I don't totally puree it, but break it up more. This mixture I pour into a colander I have sitting over the pot with the sugar in it. I'll add a bit more hot water, if when stirring, the sugar doesn't seem to be dissolving. Always pour the added water over the rhubarb in the colander to gather the rhubarb flavor. Some of the rhubarb strings, pulp, will end up in the beverage.

So, the RhubarbAde recipe proportions:
1 heaping quart of partially thawed and blended rhubarb
1 cup of sugar
1 gallon of water

People like this beverage and I often have it requested by guests. I took it this past weekend for our 4th of July gathering. Years ago when Monte was telling a Wisconsin uncle about the drink, he laughed, thinking it sounded like silage (green farm fodder stored in silos for winter animal feed). I don't know if he believed us that it could taste good!