When life gives you unwanted fruit, make ... popsicles?

Field Reports is a series of stories told by people in the Kamloops community, who pitched their ideas and produced the radio segments with the help of CBC Radio One. Tune in Tuesdays until the beginning of April onDaybreak Kamloops.

A program run by the Kamloops Food Policy Council is trying to reduce food waste by collecting excess fruit grown in the area and turning it into popsicles.

The Gleaning Abundance Program has volunteers that workin partnership with local tree fruit owners to pick unwanted fruit.

During peak growing seasons, there is so much fruit harvested they struggle to give it all away, program head Sandra Frangiadakis told field reporter Sonya Rokosh.

"We tried drying fruit and freezing fruit, but it's really super time consuming and there isn't really a lot of market for that," saidFrangiadakis.

They also considered making jams and preserves, but they didn't want to infringe on the locals who are already selling themat the local farmers' market, saidFrangiadakis.

"So, popsicles just came up and it's a fun thing.They're pretty easy to make."

Fun flavours

They don't have a name yet for the popsicles, but they do have some pretty unique flavours.

Greg Unger, project co-ordinatorand popsicle-maker, has most recently been experimenting with using peaches.

"We don't get a lot of peaches, [but], we do get some," said Unger. "And so I decided to try actually two peach flavours today. We're doing peach basil and we're doing hot peach."

In addition to the two peach flavours, they also have plum tarragon, apricot honey and gingery pear.

Popsicle proceeds

Thepopsicle project isa social enterprise, meaning it's a business designed to give back to the community.

All proceeds from the project go to programs run by the Food Policy Council.

The council hopes to sell their treats for around $4 or $5 at the farmers' market this summer. However, a full list of locations of where the treats will be sold is not yet available.

Unger plans to do deliveries by putting a cooler on the back of his bike.

"If it's hot out, and you need a popsicle, and you're in a park, look us up."