Business & Tech

MomPops Satisfies Your Sweet Tooth Organically

Healthier pizza and dessert are now made possible at a market or store near you.

Dozens of children mosey up to the vibrantly colored “MomPops” portable cooler at the Malvern Farmers Market on Saturdays.

While holding their children’s hands, parents present them with a choice among the chalked list of flavors: chocolate banana, lemon-lime pucker, raspberry, mango, cold-brew mocha latte or peach.

Often, the parents also select one for themselves, reaching into their pockets to fish out $2 per pop with their child slung over their opposite shoulder.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

MomPops, a health-conscious and gourmet popsicle business, began providing frozen alternatives to sugar on a stick in 2010. Owned by mother-and-son team Sandra and Issa Ostrander, the entrepreneurs hand-make the popsicles daily at a production facility in West Chester, selling them at farmers markets or local specialty stores.

What many children may not have noticed, but many parents did, were the additional qualifications printed onto the cooler: soy-free, nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan. MomPops sets out to offer a "guilt-free" snack or dessert.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

The Ostranders also operate another business, Take Me... Bake Me, a gourmet bake-at-home pizzas sold in conjunction with the popsicles. The pizza business is in its tenth year.

Sandra Ostrander came up with the idea of gourmet popsicles while eating a commercially-manufactured treat on a sticky summer day.

“I ate a pop that was so full of sugar that it coated the inside of my mouth. I didn’t have any water and I thought, ‘This is a problem,’” she said. “It was an uncomfortable feeling. Popsicles are such a fun thing that it should be easy to make them healthy.”

Ostrander’s idea sparked a three-year succession of crafting popsicles, using her imagination to concoct flavors and testing them by trial-and-error. In order to make the pops, she and her son assemble the ingredients: fresh fruits, coconut milk, coconut, cocoa and organic agave for sweetening. Then, they puree the fruits, mix the ingredients, pour them into molds and freeze them in a popsicle-making machine. In 25 minutes, 109 low-calorie popsicles are ready for packaging.

“I like educating people on the benefit of healthy alternatives because people want garbage,” she said. “ Especially for the kids — so many kids have allergies these days that we decided to cater to them and all children.”

“I think people don’t care. They don’t care about sugar because sugar is cheap.”

The pizzas, also hand-made in West Chester, likewise have organic roots. The hearth-baked crusts are topped with fresh ingredients, such as homemade pesto, spinach, roasted peppers, ricotta cheese, sundried tomatoes for the spinach and pesto pie.

Issa Ostrander has always been an entrepreneur throughout his adult life, working at businesses including Mom’s Bake at Home Pizza. Sandra Ostrander taught elementary school music at Culbertson Middle School in Newtown Square for 13 years, and joined her son full-time (or more than full-time) three years ago upon retirement. She most enjoys using her creativity and working with her son.

The Ostranders spend 10 to 12 hours per day cranking out pies and popsicles during the week, and offer their products at farmers markets and by catered order.

Find Mompops at specialty stores in the area, including Kimberton Wholefoods, Green Aisle Grocery and Metropolitan Bakery. The Mompops cart rolls around regional farmers markets in Malvern, Media, Downingtown and Bryn Mawr among other bordering towns.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Malvern