245/365: National Blueberry Popsicle Day

Today we pay homage to a food that technically does not exist. September 2 is National Blueberry Popsicle Day!

Early in the year, our East Coast Food Consultant – who attempted a similar food challenge in 2011 – warned us about this particular holiday. It was one he’d had trouble with, because they do not make blueberry-flavored Popsicles. At least, Popsicle® (the brand) does not make blueberry-flavored Popsicles. They might have, once upon a time, though I can find no reference to this anywhere, which begs the question: who came up with today’s food holiday, and why?!

This necessitated a change in our thinking. For this challenge, Popsicles® had to become popsicles: generic, frozen ice pops. Those are easy enough to make, in any flavor that strikes your fancy. They sell plastic molds and kits for making your own; in fact, I remember we had some as a kid, and used to freeze our own ice pops to enjoy during those hot summer afternoons growing up. So, Tara and I bought a popsicle-making kit, and – since this challenge was on my radar well in advance – I purchased some fresh blueberries from the farmer’s market in August, and froze them. I then used the following recipe I found online, which includes a little bit of lemon juice and honey for added flavor and consistency (thanks to Lyuba @ willcookforsmiles.com):

Blueberry Lemon Popsicles

Ingredients

24 oz of fresh blueberries
1/2 cup of honey
Juice from 1 lemon

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor. Puree well.
Split the puree among the popsicle molds.
Cover the molds with saran wrap, tight. Poke very small holes right in the center and carefully stick some wooden popsicle sticks in the puree.
Freeze for 5-6 hours.

Voila! Pretty easy and straightforward. Obviously, I used frozen blueberries, but these worked out well. They turned out pretty tasty – and are all natural, too!