I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t get enough of local strawberries right now! They’re so perfect and sweet, they make me want to eat them right when I get them.
I’ve been receiving a new carton of local strawberries each of the past two weeks in my Homegrown Grocery basket (like a CSA), and this week I decided to use half of my carton to make a sparkling strawberry rhubarb lemonade!
If you have a juicer, this lemonade is totally worth the trouble of cleaning it. And since each serving is actually half juice and half club soda, one recipe ends up making a whole pitcher (five or six servings).
Abby “helped” me with today’s photo shoot. Usually she rejects strawberries and throws them onto the floor, but she didn’t hesitate to bite into these — probably because I was trying to photograph them!
R.I.P., white jeans!
Rhubarb stalks
Typical lemonade consists of lemon juice, water, and sugar, but I wanted to change things up a bit. I added the naturally sweet strawberry flavor and the unique tang of rhubarb to lemon juice, stirred in agave nectar to sweeten it, then diluted the juice with club soda instead of water to make an extra refreshing summer drink that’s perfect for sipping at a cookout, by the pool, or after a hot day of working in the garden!
To keep this sparkling strawberry rhubarb lemonade as fresh as possible, I recommend keeping the juice and club soda separate until serving time. For one 8-ounce glass, dissolve two Tablespoons of agave into 1/3 cup juice, then add enough club soda to make one cup of lemonade. Add ice, garnish with fruit, and enjoy! 🙂
- 5 lemons, peeled (I use a knife to cut off the ends, then down the sides.)
- ~15 strawberries, organic
- 3 stalks rhubarb (6-7 oz.)
- ----------------------------------------
- ⅓ cup juice
- 2 T. agave
- ~1/2 cup club soda
- Ice
- Extra fruit for garnish (optional)
- Using a juicer, juice the lemons, strawberries, and rhubarb. Pour into a single container to keep in the fridge if only make single servings. Otherwise, pour into a measuring cup to determine how much juice you extracted before pouring into a pitcher (this way you can determine ingredient ratios).
- For one 8-ounce serving, dissolve 2 T. agave in ⅓ cup juice. Add ½ cup club soda and fill glass with ice. Garnish with fruit, if desired.
- If making a whole pitcher of lemonade, maintain ingredient ratios roughly equivalent to the ratio used when making one glass, depending on how much juice you have.
I hope you’re all enjoying the local spring produce! I’ve decided to eat — and drink — as many strawberries as I can before they’re no longer in season.
Enjoy this Memorial Day weekend, wear your sunscreen and bug spray, and stay hydrated! 🙂
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