STAFF PICKS - Best Refreshing, Healthful Festival Food 

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• illo by bob doran

Brad Thompson bought an ice shaving machine basically because his kids love snow-cones, the cold, sweet treat we all remember from childhood trips to one fair or another. But when he went to make his first batch of syrup, he had second thoughts. He realized that there was an awful lot of sugar involved, and no matter if it’s high-fructose corn syrup or good old-fashioned cane sugar, it’s just not that good for you. Figuring there had to be a better way, he started experimenting. He came up with a mix of fresh frozen fruit --strawberries and mangoes among others -- suspended in fruit juices, sometimes orange, sometimes apple. Now known as The Ice Peddler, he rotates these fruit blocks on his machine and shaves off pale pastel ribbons of real fruit goodness that mound into a far, far superior version of the snow-cone -- the perfect thing for a hot day at whatever fair or festival.

 -- Bob Doran