Fannie’s popsicles offer flavor, fun without the dyes

Red-ringed mouths and dripping chins, stickiness from fingertips to funny bones – these are all sure signs.

Popsicles mean it’s summer.

But those stained faces and fingers are often colored with red 40, blue 1 and yellow 5 and 6 – in other words, artificial dyes.

And the first few ingredients in many store-bought brands? High-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, sugar syrup and a variety of gums (guar, locust bean, modified cellulose).

Popsicle-maker Mandolyn Hume puts none of those things in her locally made frozen treats.

The owner of Fannie’s Ice Pops in Spokane is marking the start of her second season selling all-natural popsicles at local farmers markets and community events. She uses local and organic ingredients as much as she can, and she opts to use as few ingredients as possible – keeping it simple and keeping it real.

All of her ice pops are dairy free. (If a recipe calls for creaminess, she uses coconut milk.) They’re also vegan and gluten free.

And they arrive in customers’ hands via a whimsical mode of transportation. Hume peddles her popsicles from a vintage-inspired bicycle bedecked with a wooden cart.

Strawberry-rhubarb is really popular. So is chocolate-avocado.

“It tastes like a Fudgsicle,” Hume said.

There’s blueberry-mint and raspberry-basil.

“That’s one of my favorites,” Hume said.

But the flavor combination that seems to most surprise people: cucumber-apple-mint- lime.

Hume started with only a few flavors: straight-up strawberry (find the recipe in today’s Spokesman-Review Food section), strawberry-rhubarb, rhubarb with lemon verbena.

Now, her offerings are “all over the map.” They cover seven printed pages, arranged by season. There’s strawberry-balsamic, rhubarb-mint and cucumber-violet in spring. In early summer, try blueberry-lavender, blueberry-cardamom and blackberry-rosewater.

Look for peach-jalapeño, nectarine-tarragon and nectarine-honey- chamomile in midsummer. Late summer, when melons are ripe, she has honeydew-mint, cantaloupe-lavender, watermelon-parsley, watermelon-lemongrass and watermelon-chili-lime.

Through autumn, she offers apple-rosewater, pear-ginger-cream, pear-almond and pear-orange blossom.

“Pretty much anything that there was fresh in season I would try a new pop with it,” Hume said.

She became a small-business owner “because I had twin 5-year-olds.” They loved popsicles in summer. But Hume wasn’t a fan of the artificial flavors and colors in many of the brands carried by the ice cream truck or grocery stores.

So she began freezing her homemade smoothies. They were a hit with the twins, who sold them during a yard sale at their home on Spokane’s South Hill in spring 2013. Yard-sale shoppers loved them, too, and the idea for Fannie’s Ice Pops was born.

A special education preschool teacher turned stay-at-home mom, Hume, 39, bought 200 popsicle molds online along with some commercial-size pots and other kitchen equipment.

She named her enterprise after her great-grandmother, Fannie, who had a homestead in Oregon. Now, that old family farm is “all a sea of homes,” said Hume, who’s from Salem and moved to Spokane to attend Whitworth University.

She graduated in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary special education. Ten years later, she earned a master’s degree in early childhood education from Eastern Washington University.

She founded Fannie’s Ice Pops in April 2014, rented a commercial kitchen and catered her first event – the birthday party of a friend’s 2-year-old – a month later.

“I love food. I would consider myself kind of a foodie,” Hume said. “I love doing dinner parties. I mean, I think about food all the time. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy experimenting with different flavors.”

Rhubarb-jasmine. Rhubarb-elderflower. Sour cherry and almond. Plum with star anise. Watermelon-tarragon. Watermelon-cucumber. Honeydew-ginger.

They’re $3 each or two for $5. The price comes down for orders of 100 or more.

Hume makes her own infused syrups using organic cane sugar to add depth of flavor. She also buys many of her ingredients from the same farmers markets at which she sells her ice pops.

While her attorney husband, Taudd Hume, helps, Fannie’s Ice Pops is essentially a one-woman show.

Earlier this year, a successful Kickstarter campaign – $13,585 from 119 backers – enabled Hume to upgrade her equipment to keep up with demand. She recently bought a Finamac Turbo 8 high-performance popsicle-making machine.

“You can do more at a time, and they freeze quicker,” Hume said. Plus, the texture of the ice pops turns out more consistently as well as with fewer ice crystals.

At weddings or other events, Hume recommends serving them upside down in a martini glass or Champagne coupe filled with bubbly.

Meantime, find Fannie’s Ice Pops at the Fairwood Flea and Farmers Market on Tuesday, Night Market in Kendall Yards on Wednesday, Thursday Market in the South Perry District and Liberty Lake Farmers Market on Saturday. They can also be found at Fresh Design Gallery & Vintage Rental, 116 N. Lefevre St. in Medical Lake.

Or, try making them at home with a couple of her recipes – and eating them faster than they can drip down to your elbows.

Straight-up Strawberry Ice Pops

From Mandolyn Hume

2 cups puréed strawberries (4 cups, or 1 pound, of hulled strawberries)

1 cup simple syrup

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Mix puréed strawberries and simple syrup in a bowl or pitcher with a pour spout. Add lemon juice and stir. Pour mixture into ice pop molds, leaving a little room at the top for expansion. Insert sticks and freeze until solid, about 5 to 8 hours. Unmold and transfer to a plastic bag for storage until served.

Note: To make the simple syrup: boil 1 cup water in a saucepan with 1 cup organic sugar cane (or sweetener of choice) and stir until sugar is dissolved. Let cool to room temperature.

Lemonade-Basil Ice Pops

From Mandolyn Hume of Fannie’s Ice Pops in Spokane

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 cups basil simple syrup

3 cups filtered water

Stir lemon juice, simple syrup and water together in a pitcher or a bowl with a pour spout. Pour mixture into ice pop molds, leaving a little room at the top for expansion. Insert sticks and freeze until solid, about 5 to 8 hours. Unmold and transfer to a plastic bag for storage until served.

Note: To make the simple syrup: boil 1 cup water in a saucepan with 1 cup organic sugar cane (or sweetener of choice) and 3 sprigs of basil. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Strain out the basil. 

Let cool to room temperature.