First, I grew up in Philadelphia, and in Philadelphia, we have something called “water ice.” It’s like cheese steaks in that it’s local. I didn’t know it wasn’t universal until I moved away. Elsewhere they call something like it Italian ice, but we don’t. Here’s an article on it from USA Today: What is Philly-style water ice? We explain how it’s made and where to get it.

On to the matter at hand. I was recently led through the Spodek Method to a commitment that involved finding some clean snow, mixing it with fruit, and making something like water ice from scratch—that is, mixing fresh fruit with snow.

I did it today. Here is my journey.

First, I chose the fruit based on what I had at home and chopped it up to bring to the snow. I went with orange and banana. I like chunks. I put them in containers to bring to my roof and mix with snow there. I’d have to climb eleven flights to get there, but I figured I’d get to relax, though the temperature was well below freezing.

When I got to the roof, I could see through the window no steps in the snow. No one had visited the roof since we got about 8 inches (18cm) of snow last week.

When I tried to open the door, I found out why. I couldn’t open it. The snow had turned to ice on the other side of the door. It was impossible to open. Did I climb eleven flights for nothing? Only if living an active lifestyle means nothing.

I guess that meant I’d go to Washington Square Park for snow. I knew it had plenty of snow. People keep unthinkingly saying the snow isn’t clean, but it’s not hard to find clean stuff. I didn’t know for sure until arriving there, but it worked. The top layer had hardened, effectively sealing the snow below. I broke a piece off and used the underside for its ice.

Here’s the snow and bowl of chopped banana on my lap before mixing them. If you didn’t know, banana peels are edible and healthy, as are citrus peels, mango skin, and strawberry stems, among other often disposed of parts of fruit.

I added snow from the chunk to the bowl:

Then mixed them. Ta-da! Homemade water ice! No artificial anything. No sugar added. Full of fruit flavor.

I’d like to say I discovered an amazing new delight, but candidly, the snow part tasted like snow, which I like, but it wasn’t special, and the banana part tasted like cold banana. I’d choose this combination over ice cream, but I wouldn’t eat ice cream, so it’s not saying much.

On other other hand, Home cooked tastes better, even when it tastes worse.

Next, I added orange:

It also tasted like cold orange mixed with cold banana. Still, I enjoyed it, partly for my active role in making it. Here’s a mix of it all:

Some orange juice had filtered at the bottom of the bowl with oranges so I poured it on some snow, like syrup. I didn’t take picture of it, but it was closer to water ice.

Now, how about some pictures of Washington Square Park in the snow? Here is looking east from around where I sat:

Here is looking south:

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Overall, I enjoyed the adventure even if the homemade, partly park-made, water ice was mostly just snow and cold fruit. I like them both. It cost me nothing (the fruit is excess from volunteering that would have been thrown away). I may use the hands-on practical experience to learn to improve it for another time.

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