By August. The month when summer stops being fun and starts being work. Garden needs constant attention, weeds faster than vegetables, tomatoes splitting. Picked fourteen tomatoes Monday and made sauce — just tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, salt — froze it in quart containers. Twenty quarts now, twenty quarts of summer in the freezer for February.
Made corn on the cob Wednesday. Local sweet corn from Versailles Road, boiled in water with milk and butter — Betty's method, seasoning the corn from inside out. Six ears, five minutes, buttered and salted and eaten on the porch with juice running down our arms, neither of us talking because corn doesn't require conversation, corn requires attention and napkins.
School is about to start. I don't have anyone starting school but the August-to-September feeling triggers the old feeling — the September feeling of ending and beginning. I felt it walking to Evarts Elementary with my brothers, new shoes stiff and haircuts fresh. I feel it now at fifty-five without the shoes or the haircut, just the air, just the hint, just the knowledge that time does what time does.
Connie and I went to the movies Saturday night. I don't remember the movie. I remember the popcorn and the air conditioning and Connie's hand on my arm in the dark theater and the feeling of being a couple who goes to movies, which I associate with being young, and being young is something I associate with not hurting.
I’ve been freezing summer all month—twenty quarts of tomato sauce, a freezer full of August—so it made sense to freeze a little more of it in a form Connie and I could eat on the porch, the same porch where we ate the corn, the same August light going gold over the yard. These raspberry lemonade popsicles don’t require a garden or a canning pot; they just require the particular willingness to admit that the good part is almost over and you might as well make it cold and sweet and hold it in your hand a little longer.
Raspberry Lemonade Popsicles
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes (including freeze time) | Servings: 8 popsicles
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
- 1/3 cup honey or sugar, adjusted to taste
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Make the base. Combine raspberries, lemon juice, honey, and water in a blender. Blend until completely smooth, about 60 seconds.
- Strain. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a large measuring cup or bowl, pressing with a spatula to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard seeds and solids.
- Add zest. Stir in the lemon zest. Taste and adjust sweetness or tartness as needed—the flavor will mellow slightly once frozen.
- Fill molds. Pour the mixture evenly into popsicle molds, leaving about 1/4 inch of space at the top for expansion. Insert sticks.
- Freeze. Freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until completely solid.
- Unmold. Run the outside of the mold briefly under warm water for 10–15 seconds to release. Serve immediately.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 55 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 2mg