Raw Sorbet

It's not a huge $ maker, but we sell raw sorbet at a couple of our venues. It's hugely appreciated by the lactose intolerant and (all 3 of the) raw foodies at our Texas Renaissance Festival operation.

For anyone into raw food ... it's that old standard of frozen fruit through a Champion Juicer, while using the solid plate rather than the juice sieve. We sweeten it with ripe bananas, and use the cleaned-then-frozen fruit from our fruit shops "Don Felipe's Fruteria" and "Fruitful Endeavors". The festival is only open on weekends, so having a plan for the fruit is a must.

One of the most advantageous elements of the sorbet is that we have it as a sweet treat option for ourselves. Rhonni's shop is a bakery ... and while the food is lovely .. it's not what we want to be eating everyday. Those fresh fruit tartlets might look like they are good for you, but the shortbread crust puts a kink in the svelteness plan.

We also sell the sorbet at Pete Seeger's Clearwater Festival ... now that is an appreciative audience. It was the first time we ever ran out of product, and had to make it on the spot ... and we always show up with enough product to double our biggest day at any event. So many of the show guests already owned Champion Juicers, and didn't know the trick ... it was really nice to be able to pass the tip along.
By the way ... Clearwater has an amazing line-up this year. It's Pete Seeger's 90th birthday, and the 40th anniversary of the festival. I'm going to have to make sure we bring enough workers to allow time to watch some shows.

Last night I made a new chocolate sorbet. Our winter home is on the US/MX border, in LaFeria, Texas. It's a funky and fabulous house in a 3 acre organic citrus and avocado grove. I planted a Black Sapote tree this year, and the following recipe is why:

1.5 cups black sapote chunks, cut into 1" pieces and frozen
1.5 cups perfectly ripe banana, in 1" chunks and frozen
1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
Chopped hazelnuts or fresh mint as garnish (optional)

Toss cacao onto the frozen pieces of fruit, then alternate them through the Champion, using the solid plate. Serve with chopped hazelnuts as a garnish if desired.
No additional sweeteners are necessary if you use truly ripe bananas. It's incredibly creamy and chocolaty. (no nutritional data available yet).

If you can access Black Sapote, it looks like a green persimmon, and like a persimmon, it's not ripe until it is almost ooz-y ... very soft. They freeze well. If you freeze the entire thing, you can run it under hot water, and the skin will come right off. There are about 9 large seeds inside, so figure out how you're going to deal with them before throwing the entire thing at a piece of kitchen machinery.