Nathalie Jordi - Peoples Pops : 55 recipes for ice pops, shave ice, and boozy pops from Brooklyns coolest pop shop

Copyright 2012 by Nathalie Jordi, David Carrell, and Joel Horowitz
Photographs copyright 2012 by Jennifer May

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jordi, Nathalie.
Peoples Pops : 55 recipes for ice pops, shave ice, and boozy pops from Brooklyns coolest pop shop / Nathalie Jordi,
David Carrell, and Joel Horowitz; photography by Jennifer May.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: A collection of 55 seasonal ice pops and shave ice recipesProvided by publisher.
1. Ice pops. 2. Peoples Pops. 3. Cookbooks. I. Carrell, David, 1982 II. Horowitz, Joel, 1981 III. Title.
TX795.J67 2012
641.863dc23
2011046653

eISBN: 978-1-60774-212-8

Prop styling by Alana Chernila

v3.1

FOR THEIR GENEROSITY of spirit, brilliant connections, sage counsel, and good humor, we thank Matt Sartwell, Nach Waxman, Rien Fertel, Amanda Hesser, Mitchell Kaplan, John T. Edge, Pableaux Johnson, Brett Martin, Celia Sack, Sara Roahen, Angie Mosier, Ari Weinzweig, and Alex Jordi. The groovy skills of John Goodwin, Robin Hiner, Rue Snider, and Charlie Stopek enabled this business to make technological, aesthetic, and volumetric quantum leaps. Daryl Hanna, Cris and Nadia Gil, Robert LaValva, Colin Alevras, and especially Lucy Watson and Ben Pratt were there to witnessand supportour social experiment from the very beginning. Shortly thereafter, Morgan Miller and Katie Myers rained down munificent gifts of time and tube sock: the first winds beneath our wings.

At Ten Speed, Aaron Wehner and Jenny Wapner believed in this book from the get-go; Sara Golski, Jennifer May, Alana Chernila, and Betsy Stromberg made it really beautiful. Eric Johnson generously built us an index. Maya Menendez and Judy Peacock Goodwin, invaluable guides, lovingly keep us on the right side of the law. Alisha Miranda, you dont get your own chapter, but thanks anyway. The Jordi, Carrell, and Horowitz families earn credit for the spectacular support they have provided over the past four (well, thirty) years, as well as the excellent genetics.

We also thank Brett Anderson, Danielle Horowitz, and Katie Traynor, who saw the good, the bad, and the ugly and ate many pops without complaint. Finally, we high-five our superb team and terrific customers. Youre the reason this is so much fun.

IN JUNE 2008 our friend Robert LaValva called with an intriguing proposal. He was trying to start a public market for local food producers in New York City. To publicize the cause he was organizing a series of one-day markets, sort of like food flash mobs, and inviting his friends to participate. We were psyched. The only question: what to make?

The only answer: ice pops. Who doesnt love those refreshing little nuggets of fruit and sugar and ice, crystallized summertime? Even industrially produced pops are evocative bites of a common American childhood.

We figured that making pops from local, sustainably grown fruits and herbs and organic sugar had to taste good. Not that wed ever tried. Over drinks at a bar a friend suggested a name for the experiment: The Peoples Popsicle. It sounded good, redolent of a delicious and innocent revolution. Little did we know what would happen next.

Day one: We bought rhubarb, strawberries, cream, blueberries, yogurt, and honey at the Union Square farmers' market.

Day two: We made the pops.

Day three: We sold out in three hours.

Wheels started spinning in all of our brains. A few weeks later we fortuitously saw a flyer advertising the new Brooklyn Flea, a collection of outdoor markets that would soon become legendary as a small business incubator. We began showing up whenever we could swing it, and soon we gathered a loyal following.

Over the following four years we staged pop-up shops in Battery Park, Madison Square Park, and the High Line, opened shops in Chelsea Market and the East Village, and launched a catering business. We appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, drove three thousand pops to Chicago for Victorias Secret, and started selling to Whole Foods. We glued six thousand pop sticks to our shop counter, flooded our kitchen, and received a cease and desist letter from Unilever for improper use of the word Popsicle, a trademark that they own. We crashed our van, learned about the properties of biaxially oriented polypropylene, made and sold thousands of pops, and generally had a grand ol time.

We think our artisanal ice pops have proved popular because they reinvent a well-loved but humble American snack by syncing it with modern values: craftsmanship, the use of sustainably grown ingredients, and a short distance between the fruit on the tree and the consumer.

Also, theyre totally delicious!

ALTHOUGH MAKING POPS is inherently simple, wed like to share a few lessons weve learned over the years that have greatly improved our production process and made our lives easier. Above all, however, the most important thing to keep in mind is that every piece of fruit in the world is different, and the recipes weve offered are more like guidelines than they are hard-and-fast instructions. Stay relaxed, be creative, and taste every mixture before you pour it into the molds. If the mixture tastes good, the pops will taste good, too.

If you have a question about our recipes, our business, our philosophy, or anything else, feel free to email us () or stop by one of our shops in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Every one of us in the Peoples Pops crew spends time in the kitchen making pops, so we should be able to help you with at-home tips, and you might just catch Dave, Nath, or Joel at one of our shops. Wed love it!

When we first started making pops, our mission was clear: highlight the best fruit we could lay our hands on and support our local economy. We used fruit from the farmers market to make our first pops and we havent looked back since. Knowing your farmer means helping your community groweconomically, nutritionally, and deliciously.

That said, although the recipes in this book are organized by season, theyll work at any time of year, with fruit from anywhere. You can even use frozen fruit, as we sometimes have (we buy it from the same local farmers who sell us fresh fruit in season). Keep in mind, though, that with recipes this naked and unadorned, the output will mirror the input. In other words, bland, bloated, flavorless fruit will not materialize into killer pops.