Autumn is my favorite season. I like being able to get some exercise without turning into a drippy mess, I like watching the leaves change color, and I really like all of the seasonal produce that hits its peak in the Northeast during this time of the year-- squash, pumpkins, potatoes, cauliflower, potatoes... I need to stop before I get too hungry.
Still, for all the naturalistic charm of the autumn season, it's a time when lots of people put their healthier habits on hold to go trick or treating, eat a ton of candy, stay inside watching zombie movies, and generally get a jump start on being physically and politically dormant all winter. But it doesn't have to be that way!
Halloween, and autumn in general, can be an opportunity to get into hunter-gatherer mode, getting involved in all manner of scavenger hunts, whether it's for that house giving away king-size candy bars or the perfect pumpkins and apples.
Tuning in to the natural cycles of food production by going to an orchard or a pumpkin patch for your fall treats will support local agriculture, helping to lower the demand for food products that are packed up and shipped all over the place in a wasteful, fuel and paper intensive marketing process.
Here's a directory of spots to go pick produce in the NY/NJ metro area-- our area is full of fertile farm land, even though lots of people think that it's a post-industrial war zone.
Even if you don't make it out to see your local farmer, you can still use Halloween as an opportunity to help other people. For more than 50 years, UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Fund) has been setting kids up with trick or treating materials that aren't meant to collect candy, but small donations on the behalf of children around the world.
Check out their website for some more information, because it's not too late! We've got a week left before Halloween, and there are lots of opportunities to rack up on candy and donations on the horizon.
