So I’ve got no vinegar “mother” , but I do have some “organic apple cider” and some “wine yeast” from my vinegar making phase . Any body know if it makes sense tlvadd these to the pineapple vinegar?
Isn’t it still there? In Vacaville, I mean.
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AFAIK, the historic restaurant closed several years ago. The Nut Tree, as a commercial venture, is still there. More a mall at the moment, I believe.
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Wow! Where did this come from?
The pineapple came from Hawaii, by way of one of my husbands patients. The pineapple vinegar idea comes from south america I think, or maybe Mexico. The “wine yeast” came from Amazon, and really speeded up the process.
More here.
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@Saregama : of course I’ve gone on a shrub binge, and am trying lots of fruit. Many recipes suggest 1:1:1 ratios of fruit to sugar and vinegar, but I wonder if the fruit is by volume or weight. Some fruit might not make much difference I guess. Any thoughts?
Also, some recipes specify the vinegar has to be 5%. Is rice vinegar usually 5 %?
Didn’t make much of a difference aside from flavor (how sweet do you want it). Enough sugar to macerate the fruit and draw out all the liquid. I didn’t measure much after the first couple. I trust Dietsch’s ratios, though, if you need a reference.
Make a citrus one of you haven’t yet - they were amazing with the “oleo” sugar infusion or whatever he calls it where the sugar is infused with the oil in the peels. Makes an amazing limonata or aranciata in sparkling water.
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I will definately try a citrus, but that will likely wait until our next citrus season. I am going to try to master stone fruit and figs before then. I have a plan for the pinapples, but right now I have way too many bing cherries.
Works better on some than others. My guess is stone fruit will be similar to the mango I tried - not the most successful one, mostly because the pulp isn’t fibrous enough to strain out well.
Watermelon was a big hit with my friends (it was actually watermelon-lime, but the lime flavor got lost until I made a separate lime shrub and used them together).
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No, rice vinegar is usually lower, though not necessarily much lower, and it seems to vary from brand to brand - the ones I see are usually around 4%, but I’ve seen them with as much as 4.5% acetic acid. (And fwiw, I suspect that unless you’re using it to acidify something borderline-low-acid to be canned only in a boiling-water bath, when pH becomes pretty critical, the difference of even as much as 1% probably wouldn’t make or break the result…)
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Yum yum. That looks wonderful! Curious - what have you done with your shrubs. I made a blueberry shrub for the first time last week, and it’s now sitting in my fridge. I have used drinking vinegars/shrubs before by just diluting it with seltzer or ice water and making a nice refreshing drink. Looking for more inspiration I guess.
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“what have you done with your shrubs”
Nothing yet. My sister introduced me to shrubs, and she will be visiting later this week. I also bought an ebook, but haven’t had checked it out yet.
I lived in Davis, CA, as a Grad student, and knew a law student who waitered at the Nut Tree in Vacaville (where it was, as shrinkrap notes). He earned a lot in tips. Historically interesting place.
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We are enjoying both shrubs, with ice and soda stream water. My sister tried the cherry with taqulia and enjoyed it. I’m going to try tomato next.
Tomato shrub?
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'My oldest daughter graduated UC Davis, so we were out there a few times. I really liked it - the university is the town and the town is the university. Previously to that we lived in Reno for 9 years and drove past the nut tree during all our trips to the Bay Area. Never actually ate there.
Does anyone remember that big funky restaurant on the right side of the road? Pretty good food and had alligator on the menu. I can’t remember the name but think it has since been torn down. I think it was fairly close to Auburn or Roseville.
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No definitely not Black Oak, at least in the late eighties. But please keep mulling it over! 
It bugs me that I can’t remember it…I’ve searched on the Internet for it and I can’t even pull up any historical info. Same with other places I’ve looked for from the past.
