Growing up my grandpa (aka Papa) owned a fruit farm up in the Central Valley. The farm was his baby and we would go up to visit every weekend during the warmer months. I have fond memories of running down the rows of grapevines and learning to drive stick on a tractor before I could legally drive a car.
Visiting the farm was probably where my adoration of all things fruit started, but it was Papa bringing over cases of the stuff that really fueled my obsession into my teens. Nearly every Sunday afternoon, Papa would pull into our driveway and lug a case of nectarines, peaches, grapes, plums, pluots, oranges, or Asian pears (my personal favorite) up the front steps just to have me snatch it away almost immediately. I have been known to eat around 12 plums in one sitting no matter how large of a breakfast I had that morning. I was the ultimate taste tester of the fruit, mostly because I loved and devoured all of it without fail.
Once I entered adulthood and Papa starting selling off acres of the farm, I realized I was going to have to start buying my fruit at the grocery store like a normal person. This was a foreign concept to me – and also it turns out that buying fruit in the gargantuan amount that I was used to consuming was quite expensive. Go figure. Remembering my undying affection for all things fruit, this year for my birthday Papa brought me a box of perfectly ripe nectarines. They were incredible. He told me not to eat them all in one sitting, knowing full well that that was exactly what I was going to try to do. Unfortunately my attempts at having an unlimited stomach fruit vacuum were dashed, so I quickly had to come up with a way to use up the ripe fruit before it went past the point of no return. That’s when I took a good hard look at my blender and knew what I had to do.
Makes 12 popsicles.
Ingredient List:
- 6-8 nectarines (white or yellow flesh)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
Kitchen Tools: blender, popsicle mold, popsicle sticks
Prep Work:
Cut nectarines into slices and remove pits. Place in blender with sugar and water. Blend on high until smooth. Carefully pour the juice into your popsicle molds and insert popsicle sticks. Freeze 3-4 hours until solid.
Tips + Tricks:
*Let the popsicle mold sit at room temp for 5 minutes before trying to remove the popsicles. This way they should pop right out!
