The Moose Poop Diaries

Summer is here!

The solstice may be a few days off, but summer weather is here, and the only things my kids have an appetite for are watermelon, ice cream and popsicles.

I don’t have any issues with the watermelon, but I like to make the rest from scratch so I can cut down on the sugar, add fresh fruit and sneak in some probiotics because I’m stealthy like that.

Fortunately, my kids love water kefir and it’s super easy to make. So easy that I always have a few gallons of it lying around and can incorporate some of it into my homemade popsicles.

(I used to use straight fruit juice to make popsicles, but one day as I was eyeing the giant jug of water kefir and wondering who was going to drink it all – my kids love it, but they can’t drink gallons of the stuff, and I have a fresh batch ready every other day – and simultaneously listening to my kids shriek for popsicles, I had a Eureka moment: I can use water kefir as the popsicle base!)

If you’ve never heard of water kefir, I recommend checking out my favorite site, Cultures for Health. Their Water Kefir FAQ has all kinds of interesting info. They also sell the kefir grains, which is where I purchased mine.

I just fill up the popsicle molds about 2/3 full of water kefir:

Then add a bit of juice for flavor – pomegranate is always nice and we usually have it in the house.

Then you pop in some fruit (I typically use blueberries and raspberries, as we pick them every summer and there is generally a stash of these in the freezer, but this time I only had some frozen cherries, so I decided those would work just fine):

Then just put the lids on, pop ’em in the freezer for a few hours and then you’re ready to rock and roll, with a fresh, fruity, probiotic-rich summer treat for the kids.

(If you are so inclined, you can also put all the ingredients in the blender/VitaMix before pouring into the popsicle molds – but that’s just more work, to me, and my kids love finding the little bits of fruit, so I call that a win-win.)