On a cold South Florida Sunday I come across Mom’s Pops. Pam
Hardy—known as Mom, the owner of Mom's Pops has a colorful booth at the Palm Beach Gardens Green
Market. Despite the chilly weather, people are buying pops. “We get local
fruits from vendors and turn them into whole fruit pops,” says Hardy, to a
mother of two, adding the fruit pops are approx 60 calories and the dipped
ones are approx 120 calories.
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Pam Hardy aka "Mom", owner of Mom's Pops, Palm Beach
Gardens Green Market, Fla. |
“What do you use for sweeteners?” the interested mother
asks.
“We use agave or dried cane juice, nothing processed,” Hardy
says, looking deep into the mom’s eyes, “I’m a type 1 diabetic. I got into this
for my four children. When I went to the store and bought sugar-free pops, they
had no flavor.”
The family of three now all have their pops, and the mother, licking
her pop says, “this tastes better than store bought.”
This makes Hardy smile from ear-to-ear, and turning to me she
says, “I listen to everything people say on that first bite.”
She confides in me that she experimented with Stevia™ but didn’t
like the aftertaste, “I want my pops to taste good,” she says smiling at a
new customer who stops buy a pop.
Her daughter bought a pop from someone in Miami and noticed
that it instantly melted even though it had been stored in dry ice. “Why don’t
your pops do that Mom?” she asked.
“Ours don’t melt like that because we don’t add water to our
pops.” They also don’t add guar gum or other preservatives.
Everything is handmade. “I try to sell mine within two-weeks
of making and most sell within one week. If someone wants them to last longer,
I tell them I’d prefer to come to their house every two weeks and change out
what they have instead of having them eat stale pops,” Hardy says. This means the flavors change often.
Mom's Pops also takes requests for custom pops and caters parties, “I want the children to be able call their own flavors like peanut butter and jelly.”
She started selling her pops at Florida Green Markets in
October 2012. "I thought selling pops might actually work because I saw other pop vendors in several different cities while I was visiting my kids," says Hardy, adding, "It was these multiple vendors over multiple markets that got me so interested."
I buy a watermelon Jalapeno pop and find the two flavors go
well together. The pop starts off cold with mild spice but the longer I lick,
the spicier it gets.
Hardy sells her pops at the Sunday Palm Beach Gardens Green
Market and the Sat West Palm Beach Green Market. You can also find her online at www.momspops.com
“I have a Mom at the West Palm
Green Market that brings her children directly to my booth when she arrives. The kids
think they are getting candy," Hardy says with a twinkle in her eye, "but she knows they are getting whole fruit.”
