This week’s Back Roads is the work of The Land Correspondent Tim King. Photos by Jan King. A place for paletas

“Oh my!” exclaimed this team’s photographer upon tasting the hand-crafted strawberry ice cream made by Juan Chavez at the Chavez Market in the old National Guard Armory across the street from the Todd County Court House in Long Prairie, Minn.

“This is delicious! It’s creamy and tastes like real fruit and has chunks of strawberries in it.”

The reason it tastes like strawberries is because Juan uses real strawberry juice and strawberries in the small batches he makes in the market’s certified kitchen.

Juan says that he was making ice cream at home for his family before he recently opened his market and event center in the renovated armory. So, opening an ice cream shop made good sense.

But, honestly, it’s not an ice-cream shop. It’s a paleteria. Look up “paleteria” in your Spanish/ English dictionary and you’ll discover it is a place which makes and sells paletas. Paletas are a Mexican popsicles. Juan makes those too.

“You can buy paletas at Walmart, but they don’t use real fruit,” he says.

Some of the real fruit paletas Juan makes are lime, coconut, mamey, zapote, vanilla, chongo, and passion fruit.

“I brought all the recipes from Mexico; but I had never heard of passion fruit,” he said. “The Puerto Rican and Dominican people told me it tasted good — so I made a recipe for them. I use real passion fruit.”

Juan says he has about 20 different recipes. I think it’s more than that. If he keeps inventing them (like coffee, mazapan — a peanut butter candy concoction, and bubble gum) nobody will believe his modest claim.

The night we visited, Juan’s sister Blanca was serving ice cream and the sorbet used for paletas. His nephew was overseeing the market. When Blanca serves two scoops in your bowl she prefers that it be two different — but complementary — flavors. The strawberry scoop, for example, includes lechera (vanilla ice cream). Our grandson gets coconut on top of something my old brain can’t recall.

His mother asks Blanca if she could sample a bit of the fruity red sauce in a squeeze bottle. Blanca assures her it won’t go well with what she has already ordered so she puts a scoop of lime in a dish and then mango. Next she artfully squirts the fruit juice sauce over it making a beautiful ice cream bouquet. It’s spicy and brings out the citrus flavors of the sorbet.

Chavez Market, which also serves cones and Mexican drinks, has a Facebook page and is located at 220 1st Ave. South in Long Prairie. v